Part 4

                                    

                                          
FOUR:
                          
"How's it going, son?" Stoick poked his head round the door and looked into the basement studio that his son had created since the loss of his wife. Hiccup still had his bedroom upstairs but after the accident, he had initially found the stairs difficult so Stoick had made the basement-which had a small elevator to ground level-a temporary bedroom and living area. Artistic and skilled as a painter, photographer, sculptor and tinkerer, Hiccup used the space for his projects-and latterly, for his coaching sessions for various cast members of the pantomime. To one side, a vintage Harley Davidson was in the process of being rebuilt, several paintings were hung on the wall as well as his dead mother's photographic equipment and a framed selection of her work-mainly images of the happy family they had been before the impact that ripped them apart.
                          
Hiccup looked up from the workbench, apparently unscrewing a component from the centre of a plush rat. He frowned, picked out a piece of fluff and sighed.
                          
"Great, Dad-it's going just great," he said unenthusiastically. Stoick walked forward with a home-made strawberry shake, the plump pieces of fresh strawberry suspended in the thick ice-creamy treat. He rested the drink by his son, along with a plate of home-made cinnamon and apple star-shaped cookies.
                          
"The type of 'great' that's about a twentieth of an inch from 'utter catastrophe'?" he asked wisely, perching on a reinforced stool. Hiccup sighed.
                          
"Not quite that bad," he admitted, absently taking a still-warm cookie and munching away with a sigh. "Half an inch at least. Hey-these are great, Dad," he said gratefully. Stoick nodded.
                          
"New recipe I got from Gobber," Stoick admitted. "So what's worrying you?"
                          
"Worried? Me?" Hiccup asked quickly, an almost guilty look in his eyes. "I'm fine, Dad. And you have far more important..."
                          
"Nothing's more important than my son," Stoick reminded him sternly. "And said son is absolutely incapable of hiding his emotions..." Hiccup gave an embarrassed laugh and rubbed the back of his neck.
                          
"You noticed?" he mumbled. "Um...sorry..." Stoick took a cookie and bit into it thoughtfully.
                          
"Nothing to be sorry about, son," he said. "But I hate seeing you concerned. Anything I can do to help?" Hiccup sipped his milkshake and sighed.
                          
"Not really," he explained. "I mean, the cast are at least all trying...mostly..."
                          
"Have they stopped playing pranks on you?" Stoick asked and Hiccup nodded.
                          
"Um...Astrid saw to that," he confessed.
                          
"I was very worried when you came home bright green," his father confessed, munching away. "Astrid, you say. I know you've been going round to her house recently..." Hiccup face-palmed. Trust his Dad to put two and two together and make grand babies! 
                          
"I've been helping her with her lines and her acting," he explained. Stoick winked.
                          
"But she asked you to help her," he reminded his son.
                          
"Oh Thor..." Hiccup groaned. "Have you been talking to Gobber?" Stoick grinned.
                          
"Stranger things have happened," he reminded his son. "Have I told you that your Mom and I got together when we had to do a Biology Project looking at worms and lice?" Hiccup rolled his eyes.
                          
"Bleurgh! And yes...about a hundred times..." he replied sarcastically. "I usually end up wanting to take a shower after you tell me all the details. Bleurgh! Honestly, Dad-we're just friends..."
                          
"But you do like her," his father stated. "Maybe you might want to tell her? Or show her? Or ask her out?"
                          
"Agh! And no," Hiccup gabbled urgently. "Look, Dad-Astrid is an amazing, beautiful, smart woman and she is so totally out of my league I should probably be locked up for even thinking about that! I mean, she is being chased by the School Quarterback and was being pursued by Snot before that..."