The next morning, I didn't want to get up, preferably never again. With Hiccup's arm around me and cuddled up under the thick blanket, it was so cozy that a smile crept onto my lips. Am I allowed to wish to wake up like this for the rest of my life? That I finally get to be in a happy relationship? I knew that I didn't know everything about Hiccup, that for some reason he had secrets, but now that we were this close and a couple, he'd surely open up to me over time. He would realize that he could trust me one hundred percent. At least that's what I hoped.

My growling stomach pulled me out of my thoughts and made me open my eyes. Apparently, all the snacks I'd eaten at the party last night hadn't been enough for it. Or only lasted until now.

A soft laugh behind me told me that Hiccup had heard it too. "Dobroye utro. Sounds like someone's hungry." His breath brushed my neck as he started planting small kisses there. I instantly felt warm.

Oh. My. God. That morning voice will be the death of me, I thought. His Russian roots were definitely showing. I hadn't thought the difference would be that noticeable in the morning as people sometimes claimed. Then again, I'd never heard a male morning voice up close before.

His lips wandered to the spot beneath my ear, along my jawline, and finally pressed one last kiss on my cheek before I rolled onto my back to look at him. He brushed my hair from my face, placed his hand on my cheek, and ran his thumb gently across it. His beautiful green eyes sparkled at me. He was so gentle, so careful, even last night. He hadn't done anything without getting a nod from me first - because I hadn't been able to speak anymore. I knew that if I had stopped all of a sudden, he would have backed off without hesitation. He wouldn't even have been mad, because he put my comfort before his desire. I was at the top of his priority list, and that realization made my heart race.

"Ty prekrasna," he whispered as his eyes roamed over everything he could see of my body.

A smile spread across my lips. "What does that mean?"

He didn't answer, just kissed me lovingly. I could feel his own smile against my lips. I was thinking about opening my mouth to deepen the kiss, but then my stomach made itself known again. He pulled back grinning.

"Guess we should finally get you something to eat," he said and removed his hand so he could sit up. I just sighed, making him laugh.

We got dressed, each used the bathroom quickly, and then went to the kitchen together. "What would you like for breakfast?" I asked, standing in front of the open fridge.

"Pancakes," he said immediately. I raised a questioning eyebrow, he just shrugged. "What? They're the best thing Americans ever invented." I laughed and grabbed milk and eggs.

He helped me prepare them, even did the frying himself, because, even though it was my home and he was the guest, he didn't want to just stand around doing nothing, as he explained while cracking eggs. Plus, he loved flipping pancakes. I only insisted that none end up on the floor or ceiling, which made him laugh. Since we didn't have any syrup, we used jam or Nutella instead. While he happily focused on his task, I set the table, poured us each a glass of orange juice, and checked to see if my dad was in bed. Honestly, I had completely forgotten about him. My priorities had been elsewhere last night. But it was empty, so he had probably drunk too much and stayed over at his colleague's place, where he'd celebrated New Year's.

Once Hiccup had turned all the batter into delicious-smelling, thick pancakes, we sat down at the table and began eating. It was wonderfully peaceful just sitting there and enjoying New Year's Day together. He was still gentle, smiling at me almost the whole time like I was the best thing he'd ever seen. If heart eyes existed in real life, I would definitely have had them.

After we'd each eaten our third pancake and were taking a short break, my dad stumbled through the door. Literally. I jumped up, even though I wouldn't be able to catch him in time, but he caught himself and laughed, closing the door behind him. Either they had been drinking until at least four in the morning or my dad just couldn't hold his liquor. Either way, Hiccup and I had something to laugh about. We watched him from the doorway of the dining room as he dropped his keys on the floor instead of in the bowl, took three tries to hang up his jacket, and had to lean on the wall to take off his shoes. He giggled to himself the entire time.

"Dad?" I said as he leaned his head against the wall. I stepped into the hallway. "Are you okay?"

He spun around and seemed to notice us for the first time. "Astrid!" he said happily and pulled me into a hug. Oh yeah, he was definitely still drunk. "I love you soooo much."

I had to stifle my laughter at his slurring. " I love you too."

He kissed the top of my head but didn't let go of me. "Hello, Hiccup."

"Hello, Ned. Did you have a good time?" he replied.

"Yeeees." I felt the rumble of his voice through my skull. "T'was lots of fun."

By now, I couldn't hold back the soft laughter anymore. It was just too absurd, him holding me like this and slurring, not even acknowledging how early Hiccup was here. He probably didn't even notice half of what was going on around him.

"I think," I said, slowly pulling away from him, "you should go to bed." It was already half past ten in the morning, but he definitely needed a few more hours of sleep.

He nodded several times. "Good idea." He staggered up the stairs. I turned grinning back to Hiccup, who was smiling amusedly as well.

"I was expecting him to ask why I was here so early," he said, following me back to the table.

"That's what I was just thinking too," I said, laughing. "But he clearly still has too much alcohol in his system. You've been here so often over the last six months, he probably already thinks it's normal to see you in the morning. And like I told you yesterday, he trusts me and wouldn't forbid me from having my boyfriend sleep over."

He made a dismissive gesture. "It's just new to me, it feels strange."

"How was it with Stacy?" I asked, putting another pancake on my plate and reaching for the strawberry jam. When he didn't answer, I looked up from the jar. He was staring at me, uncertain. "Or do you not want to talk about it?"

"I thought you wouldn't want to talk about it," he said.

I smiled at him. "Just because Stacy and I don't really get along doesn't mean we can't talk about her. She was your girlfriend, just like Brandon was my boyfriend, and we've talked about him too. I'd rather not hear details about your sex life, but you can definitely tell me how her parents treated you, if you want to."

He seemed to relax a little, his shoulders dropped slightly and the crease on his forehead disappeared. "With them, we always had to announce it ahead of time. When I'd come over, when I'd leave, whether I'd stay for dinner. Sometimes even exact times if they had plans. It felt like I was scheduling appointments instead of casually spending time with my girlfriend. And I had to sleep on a mattress on the floor."

I almost spit out the piece of pancake I was chewing. "You're kidding." He shook his head. "Is that why you asked if we needed to drag one into my room?" He nodded. My heart sank a little. Didn't Stacy say anything about it? Did she just sleep in her comfy bed while he was on the floor? "Did you stay over at her place often?"

"No," he said and took a sip of orange juice. "I liked Stacy, but I didn't want to sleep on the floor every weekend. That was often a point of conflict between us, especially since she never wanted to stay over at my place either, but that was alright for my parents." I almost missed it, but he stopped abruptly and tensed up again. He had wanted to say more, I could see it, but something was holding him back.

"They didn't like Stacy?" I asked as if it were nothing. I needed to show him that he could trust me.

He avoided my gaze. "Not really." He cleared his throat and set his glass back on the table. He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "At least your dad's chill. My back appreciates that." The last pancake landed on his plate. That was the end of the topic.

Why wouldn't he talk more about his parents? He had during their road trip, or at Christmas when his mom wanted him to come home. He talked about his whole family, his babushka, the aunt who always kissed him noisily on the cheek when she saw him, just not his parents. What had happened since we met that made him stop talking about them? And why didn't he want to introduce me to them? Something wasn't right, and I was going to find out what it was.

❁

At half past three, I woke my dad because Hiccup and I were hungry. I asked him what he wanted from the Chinese place and then let him get up and freshen up in the bathroom. He wasn't drunk anymore, but he definitely had a hangover, so I gave him an aspirin and a glass of water, for which he thanked me. An hour later, we were sitting on the couch with our fried noodles and chicken, watching The Vampire Diaries. Apparently, my dad had watched the show with my mom once, but never to the end. Since we were just nearing the end of season three, he still remembered what was happening.

"Stefan's story gets interesting," he said, shoveling a forkful of noodles into his mouth. He never learned to eat with chopsticks, even though my mom always said he just didn't want to. "I liked season five, but that was the last one I watched."

"You better not spoil anything, Dad," I said warningly.

He grinned at me. "I'd never do that."

Hiccup stayed with us for the rest of the weekend, but had to go home on Sunday since school was starting again the next day. Why couldn't the Christmas holidays here last two weeks like they do in Europe? Judging by the students' faces on Monday morning, they wished the same. Elsa looked like she could fall asleep on the spot.

"Let's drop out of school and become influencers," were her first words to me, which made me chuckle.

"No," I simply said, making her groan and walk toward the door, Jack right behind her, though he threw me a grin.

Hiccup took my hand in his and pulled me inside. "She already pitched that idea to me and got the same answer." I laughed and he smiled at me from the side. He didn't seem to care if Stacy or anyone else saw us together, because he didn't let go of my hand until we reached my locker and even gave me a kiss on the cheek before heading to his. So I guess it was official now publicly, which made me smile.

The week started with assignments and didn't let up. It was the final stretch before graduation, so we had to finish the last topics and then review everything important for the exams. The next few months were going to be torture, but at least I had Hiccup, who still helped me with everything and now had new ways to motivate me to study harder. One of them was drawing circles on my thigh with his fingers while I tried to translate a Spanish text. The more I translated, the higher his hand wandered. The fact that my concentration suffered didn't seem to bother him. But I couldn't really complain about his methods either.

I continued trying to get him to tell me more about his family, to figure out what had happened, but he skillfully avoided the topic of his parents every time. On the other hand, I now knew that his kiss-giving aunt had three children, two boys and a girl, and he got along well with all of them. Their father had disappeared without a trace a few years ago and left them behind. His Babushka, whom I had heard on the phone at Christmas, was strict but loved them all deeply and showed it, too. His Dedushka, the Russian word for grandpa, was a calm and gentle man who wasn't shy about showing affection to his wife. They all sounded absolutely wonderful, yet he never brought up the idea of introducing me to them, though I didn't pressure him about it either.

The first real doubts came on Friday in the second week after the holidays. I had given Mr. North an update about the tutoring, and he started a conversation about Hiccup and me. Apparently, he had seen us walking hand in hand to the cafeteria. So I explained that we had kind of fallen for each other and were now a couple. Hiccup hadn't come with me because he needed to pick something up and then head straight home. He didn't say what it was about, but he looked like something bad had happened, so I didn't ask. Then, when I was about to leave the building through the side door, since it was closer to the principal's office, I saw him standing by the benches.

With Brandon Miller.

———

Ohhh, what's going to happen now? 👀
And here, as always, the translations, which I hope are correct:
Dobroye utro: Good morning
Ty prekrasna: You are beautiful
I also hope Deduska is correct, I found two versions during my research and thought this fitted better with Babushka ☺️