It had been two days since I revealed what happened to my parents. There hadn't been anything out of the ordinary that had happened after the whole family cry session in my room. After we had all managed to calm down, my parents had simply said good night and left my bedroom. The next morning, my mother had come to wake me up only to tell me that I didn't have to go to school if I didn't want to. Guess what I chose?

I had spent that entire day either curled up in bed or on the couch with Stormfly by my side. It was rather nice to spend some time with my bird again and she definitely helped me get my mind off everything else that was going on in my life.

Saturday morning I found myself alone in the house once more. My parents had gone out on their usual walk before deciding to spend some time with their friends, announcing this to me by text message. Surprisingly enough, it felt quite nice to know that I wouldn't have to see another person for the rest of the day. Usually, when my parents met up with their friends they stayed there until long past dinner time, doing whatever it is that parents do when they're hanging out with other parents.

I sank further down into the couch, Stormfly settling down on top of my head as we binged our favorite series. After a few episodes my eyelids began to grow heavy and I felt the overwhelming urge to yawn. As I slowly blinked, almost unable to keep my eyes open, I was suddenly jolted awake by a loud rapping on the front door.

I blinked the sleep rapidly out of my eyes as Stormfly bounced off my head and squawked loudly as she propelled herself to the top of the stairs, scared out of her mind at the sudden knocking. I slowly got up from the couch, making sure to wrap my blanket tighter around me as I made my way over to the front door. I must've looked like I had just crawled out of the nearest dumpster, but it didn't matter. It probably wasn't anyone important anyway, right?

I opened the door and almost stumbled back at the sight ahead of me. Before my very eyes was a man I thought I wouldn't see again for a very long time and somehow someway, he was right there before me. "Hey, babe."

I gaped at him like some goldfish in an aquarium. "E-Eret? What are you doing here?"

"A little birdie told me you were having a rough time, so I thought I would swing by to see how you were doing for myself." He grinned at me, hazel eyes glittering as they met mine. I couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable. The last time we had really spoken was before my car crash almost a year ago and even though he had been there while I had been recovering, it still felt ... strange to be around him.

"Uh ... come on in I suppose." I mumbled as I turned around and wrapped my blanket even tighter around myself as I floated over to the couch.

Eret had barely made it in the door before he was nearly tackled by a certain yellow and turquoise bird who seemed to have missed him dearly. "Hey girl, long time no see!"

Stormfly chirped happily as she nuzzled her head up against Eret's face, making herself at home on his broad shoulders. Eret grinned at the bird as he sat down on the couch beside me. "So, what are you watching?"

I kept my gaze straight ahead as I turned off the tv, still a little uncomfortable in his presence. "Who told you and what did they tell you, Eret?"

Eret rubbed the back of his neck as he avoided eye contact with me. "Well, last week I got some texts from my buddies on the football team and they told me that they beat up Jake Peters for harassing 'my girl', then on Thursday I got a call from your parents saying that you were going through a really rough time and they asked me if I could maybe come over and cheer you up."

I ran a hand across my face as I let out a loud groan. "Of course my parents would do something like that, my gods, how embarrassing!"

Eret furrowed his brows as he scooted closer to me. "Astrid, what did they mean by Jake Peters harassing you? What did he do?"

I swallowed a lump that I was not aware had been gathering in my throat. I couldn't look at him, I would just be swallowed by the immense shame, guilt and self hatred all over again. "I think you know."

Out of the corner of my eye I could see him clenching his fists. "Astrid, I'm sorry if this is a little intrusive, but could you please elaborate?"

I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that would help me keep in the tears that were threatening to fall from my eyes. I gritted my teeth. "I was drunk. We made out earlier that night, he probably took that as I sign that I was into him so he roofied my drink and then touched me in places I wouldn't like to be touched by anyone before attempting to take me away from the party."

The room was completely silent except for Stormfly's soft snoring on Eret's shoulder. I braced myself for the anger that would ensue, certain that Eret's reaction would not be a calm one. But to my surprise, instead of a fit of anger, he just held his face in his hands for a moment before looking up at me, eyes welling with tears. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you."

I furrowed my brows. That was most certainly not the reaction I had expected. "You couldn't have known. Besides, you don't live in Berk anymore, you can't protect me from the other side of the country."

"You're right." Eret rubbed his chin as if he was in deep thought. "Hey, what do you say we—"

Eret was interrupted by a firm knocking on the door. I groaned as I had to get up from the comfortable couch once again. And why was everyone knocking on the door? Did they not know that we had a doorbell?

For the second time that day, I was surprised to find who stood on the other side of my door. My heart was racing in my chest as I gazed into those gorgeous emerald green eyes of Hiccup Haddock himself, who was standing outside my door with his hands in the pockets of his black bomber jacket and that lopsided smile of his that made me weak in the knees.

"Hey, Astrid." He smiled as I once again struggled to find the words to say to him. Deep inside me, I still wanted to be mad at him for the whole pity-thing that had happened two weeks earlier, but for some reason I just couldn't be mad at him, especially when he stood on my doorstep without that wonderfully nice girlfriend of his.

"H-hey, what are you doing here?" I asked, glancing over my shoulder to find Eret staring at me from the couch, wondering who was at the door.

Hiccup cleared his throat as he ran his fingers through his auburn locks. "It's just that I haven't seen you much around lately and when you didn't show up to school on Friday, I got kind of worried."

I blinked, taken aback by his words. He had decided to come over to my house to check on me because he was worried about me? "I, Uh ... that's nice of you, I guess. Why didn't you just text me, though?"

Hiccup shrugged. "I guess I just had to see you."

My heart soared in my chest and if it hadn't been for the fact that I was already tomato red just from him standing at my door, he would've definitely noticed me blushing. "Heh, thanks, that's really ... thoughtful of you."

"Astrid, who's at the door?" And suddenly, the moment I shared with Hiccup had ended. I internally cursed myself for forgetting about the 6'4 football player sitting in my living room.

"Who else is here?" Hiccup asked in a low voice, raising a brow. I just let out a sigh and shook my head as I made my way back to the couch. Hiccup followed me in, but stopped abruptly the second he and Eret made eye contact.

I sighed as I dropped down onto the couch and took a front row seat to whatever was happening between the two guys in my house. As Eret stood up from the couch, Stormfly took off from his shoulder and flew up to the railing, watching the scene from the second floor.

"What the hell is this guy doing here?" Hiccup asked in an uncharacteristically dangerous tone. I raised a brow at him, a little confused as to what was about to go down in my living room.

"I have a name you know." Eret growled as he narrowed his eyes at Hiccup.

Hiccup began cracking his knuckles, his eyes never leaving Eret's. "Oh, believe me, I know."

I furrowed my brows as I looked back and forth between the two of them, not understanding where all of this tension and hostility was coming from. Had they even spoken to each other before? "What's going on between you two?"

Hiccup stood up straight as he placed his hands on his back. "Nothing, really, I just think he deserves an award for being the worst boyfriend to ever exist. Am I wrong, child predator?"

Had Heather and Ruffnut been here, they would have gasped. I probably would have too, but I just couldn't be bothered at the moment. I glanced over at Eret and found him to be a nice shade of tomato red, eyes blazing with fury as it was clear that he was restraining himself from strangling Hiccup.

"Watch your mouth, Haddock, not even daddy can save your precious face after I've rearranged it." Eret sneered. I blinked as I tried to comprehend what was happening before me. Where was all this hostility coming from?

I got up from the couch with a groan and narrowed my eyes at the both of them. "What is all this about? Why can't the two of you behave normally all of a sudden? HOW do you even know each other?"

The two of them just glared at each other for a minute before Hiccup spoke up: "It all started when I first realized how terrible of a boyfriend he was to you, Astrid. I mean what kind of boyfriend completely forgets about his girlfriend at a party and then doesn't even try to call her the day after?"

I cleared my throat. "I was partially responsible for that ..."

"And then constantly forgets about her to go hang out with his friends instead?" Hiccup continued.

I raised a brow at Eret as he sheepishly rubbed his neck. "Alright, I'll admit that wasn't very gentlemanly of me, but I made up for it!"

"By what? Proposing to your underage girlfriend? You do know that is illegal, right?" Hiccup sneered, causing me to widen my eyes. Gods, why was he so mad?

"We never did anything sexual, so our relationship technically wasn't illegal." Eret stated and I couldn't help but shake my head.

"Eret, if you have to say that it's technically not illegal, it probably is." I remarked, crossing my arms in the process.

Eret sighed with frustration. "Why are you even here, Haddock? Can't you just leave me and my fiancé alone and run back to that girlfriend of yours."

I turned towards Eret with raised brows. "Fiancé?"

"Fiancé?" Hiccup growled. Why had he growled at the mention of Eret being my fiancé? Was he that passionate about stopping relationships between underage girls and older guys?

"Astrid, don't you remember our agreement?" Eret asked, completely ignoring Hiccup as he turned to face me.

I raised a brow as I searched for an answer in his eyes. "Our what?"

"You said that when I graduated and came back to Berk we could go back to the way things were!" Eret reminded me as he cautiously took a step towards me. I tore my gaze away from his as I racked my memory for any mention of this so-called agreement. And then I remembered it, the day of my crash.

I cursed myself for being stupid enough to promise Eret that we would get back together after he had graduated. Wait, after he had graduated? "Yes, after your graduation!"

"Astrid if you need me here I'm going to finish school in Berk, and then we can be together for the rest of our lives!" Eret exclaimed, as if he thought I was just as excited for this as he was.

Was I? Hell no, so much had happened in the past year and quite frankly, I had lost all the feelings I previously had for Eret after our somewhat complicated breakup. The only man I had feelings for was the auburn haired guy with the gorgeous emerald green eyes standing on the other side of the couch, looking like he was about to leap over and rip Eret's head off.

"Eret ..." I began, trying to figure out how to let him down easy. "What about your dream? You can't give all of that up for me."

Eret took a hold of both my arms and I flinched slightly. I felt my hands tremble as my breathing quickened. "Astrid, you are my dream, I wouldn't be giving anything up."

I began hyperventilating, his strong hands making me feel the opposite of what they used to make me feel whenever he would hold me. My head was spinning as I fought to keep the tears at bay. My knees began buckling as I lost control over my body a tumbled to the ground.

Eret was left standing up, arms still outstretched from holding me, his face etched with confusion.

I began gasping for air and before I knew it, a pair of arms wrapped around me. The difference with those arms were that they didn't make me feel uncomfortable, not in the slightest. They made me feel warm, secure and they helped me calm down so I was just breathing heavily instead of hyperventilating. I glanced up and found who those wonderful arms belonged to and was pleased to see a pair of glittering emerald eyes gazing back at me. "It's alright, Astrid, I'm here."

Those words absolutely broke me. I let out a sob as I dug my face into his chest, releasing all the emotions I had bottled up both from last year to what had happened two weeks prior. I sobbed, sobbed and sobbed, barely able to register what was going on around me.

All I knew was that Hiccup and Eret had exchanged a few non-hostile words before Eret had calmly left, leaving only Hiccup, Stormfly and I in the large house. "It's going to be alright, I'm here for you. I'm not going anywhere."

A couple of days prior, I thought I had been able to relieve myself of the intense pressure of everything that had been weighing down on me for the past year. Then Hiccup came around, wrapped me in his arms and told me that it was all going to be okay as he rubbed circles around my back. This time, I didn't even feel like I had to hold back, like I had with my parents. I just released my full, uncensored emotions upon him and he accepted them all without so much as a bat of the eye.

It was in that moment that I realized I had never before felt like I felt right then with anyone. With everyone else, I had always kept something back, but with Hiccup ... I felt like I could truly be myself. He accepted me for everything I was, and everything that I was not. He knew that the good balanced the bad sides of me and even though I had hurt him time and time again, he always came back, no matter what.

Did I deserve him? Not for a split second, but I was willing to do absolutely anything to keep this amazing man at my side, I was willing to do anything for him to never ever let me go.