A/N: Companion/sequel piece to my oneshot 'Cold North Wind'. While it focused on Valka and her relationship with Hiccup, this one is focused on Astrid and explores her relationships with Valka and Hiccup.

Started out as a oneshot that got so long I split it into a twoshot. Part 2 will be posted tomorrow. Like 'Cold North Wind' the title is again a vague reference to the movie Chocolat

Sexual content ahead. Because hiccstrid can't be tamed.

Warm Summer Breeze

His mother is alive.

Twenty years after supposedly being eaten by dragons his mother is alive.

His mother is alive and his father is dead and the dragons are all flying away and Toothless—oh gods, Toothless—and she doesn't have the slightest clue what to do or how to help him. Astrid is at his side in a heartbeat, placing her hands on his back and providing what little comfort her presence can give.

Astrid can see the question burning in his mother's gaze. What right have you to be here? Her eyes challenge. What right have you to intrude on this family's moment of grief?

In answer she wraps her arms around Hiccup's back and rests her head on his shoulder. The message is clear. Every right, her actions say. She has been the one he has relied on for comfort. She is just as much, if not more so, a part of Hiccup's family as the mother who left him.

They come to a silent understanding, and his mother buries her face in Stoick's still chest.

x

She has always been fearless. Dragons and marauders and murderous deranged teenage Viking chiefs have never frightened her. And even when they have, she has still had the courage to push through it. There is no reason why something as benign as her boyfriend's mother should be so terrifying to her.

Valka has been nothing but kind and accepting of her, but there's a distinct discomfort that settles in the pit of her stomach when she's around her. Perhaps it's how Valka towers over her. Perhaps it's the almost concerted effort she seems to put into making Astrid aware of how much she approves. Perhaps it's how easily Valka is slipping back into Hiccup's life after so long an absence.

It's the last one, Astrid thinks. She understands the where and the how of Valka's two-decade-long absence, but not the why. And she really doesn't understand why Hiccup is apparently so willing to accept his mother back into his life as if she had been there all along. It's a bizarre situation, and she's made uncomfortable less by the strangeness of it, but more by how no one else seems to find it as strange as she does. She wants to say something, but if mother and son have found some sort of reconciliation, far be it from her to rock the boat.

x

Hiccup has the most intense eyes she's ever seen.

They're most intense when looking at her, and they're never more intense than when he's watching her during this. His eyes get so dark; pupils dilated and ringed by that beautiful bright green the color of pine needles at the height of summer.

And then he twists his hips just so and she's throwing her head back against the pillow and gasping for breath.

"Astrid…" She can't help but smile at the way her name sounds when he moans it like that. He says her name as if he's worshipping a goddess. He says it and she knows she is the only woman he could ever fathom doing this with. She is the only woman he will ever want, and right now she is the only thing on his mind.

He's been stretched so thin lately. Between mourning his father and trying to manage his new responsibilities as chief he's been a frazzled mess.

Well, she can't take away his grief or his stress, but she can make him forget they exist for awhile.

The air in his room is freezing, but it's beginning to get stifling under the blankets and the cold is a welcome relief as Hiccup shrugs the furs off his back. She's so close, and her hands scrabble for purchase on his shoulders as his lips swallow her high-pitched gasps. She rocks her hips desperately into his thrusts, feeling her muscles tighten and she's just on the edge and—

"Hiccup, I've just had a thought, is—oh!" Astrid's eyes snap open and she yanks the blankets to her chest as Hiccup rolls off her. Valka stands in the doorway with a stack of parchment and a shocked expression.

"M-mom!" Astrid looks down, her heart hammering. She's barely gotten to know Valka, and being found in bed with Hiccup months before the wedding is not exactly the impression Astrid was hoping to make. Wonderful. Valka's going to see her as a slut now.

"I-I was preoccupied, I didn't hear, I'm, I'm sorry, I'll just, just go," Valka turns and flees down the stairs and they hear the front door shut behind her.

Astrid stares at the floor as Hiccup flops onto his back beside her with a frustrated groan. "Great," he mumbles. "I'm finally getting to know her again, and she walks in to see this." Astrid glances at him. He's got the heels of his hands pressed into his eyes. He drops them and sighs at the ceiling. "Just this morning she was saying how proud she was that I'd ended up such a good kid."

"She's gonna hate me, isn't she?" Hiccup frowns at her, confused.

"Why would she hate you?"

Astrid gives him a bitter smile. "Because I'm the whore who corrupted her good kid." Hiccup sits up and runs his hands over her shoulders.

"No, no, she's not gonna think that. She's probably gonna think 'oh great, my son is out there chasing skirts and stealing girls' virtue.'" At Astrid's raised eyebrow he rephrases. "Well, one girl's virtue."

Astrid shakes her head. "Hiccup she's your mom. I think she's more likely to take your side in all this than mine. And it's not like she knows me." She shrugs. "Besides, it's better for her to be mad at me than at you."

"Unless she's just mad at both of us." It's almost enough to make Astrid smile. Hiccup strokes her shoulders gently. "If it comes down to it, I'll take the blame. I'm her kid, she's gotta forgive me eventually, right?" Astrid manages a real smile and Hiccup kisses her cheekbone and pulls her back down with him. His grin is short lived, and concern steals over Astrid's face.

"Hey," she says softly, running her fingers through his hair before tilting his chin up to look her in the eyes. "What's wrong?"

He blinks and tries to look away, his eyes shifting downwards just like they always do when he's trying to hide from things, and she has to grab his chin and force him to look at her again. He sighs; a resigned little noise in the back of his throat. "I'm messing everything up," Hiccup says flatly, like it's an undisputable fact. Astrid frowns and opens her mouth to answer but he continues. "I have no idea what I'm doing with this whole chief thing. And don't tell me I'm doing great, because I'm not. I'm barely doing fine, and it's taking everything I've got to do just even a passably good job." His eyes shift away from her. "And I'm trying to build a relationship with my mom, and overall I guess it's going alright, but she's basically forgotten how people even work. And I want to tell her about my life, and I want her to be proud of who I am and what I've become, but I start telling her things and I'm suddenly hyper-aware of every bad or disappointing thing I've ever done, and I want her to love you, because you're the most important thing in the world to me and-" Astrid leans forward and kisses him to shut him up.

"You are doing fine," she whispers. Hiccup opens his mouth to protest, so she rolls on top of him and straddles his hips, and the words are replaced by a throaty moan. She can feel him still hard and throbbing beneath her, and she grinds softly against him to ensure his undivided attention. "Listen to me," she says, and kisses his forehead. "You have been dealing with so, so much; more than anyone should have to all at once." She kisses his right eye. "And you've been handling it as best as anyone could in your position." She kisses his left eye. "You're so much stronger than you know." His chin. "And so much more capable." The tip of his nose. "You try so hard and you never give up." The side of his mouth, his breaths ghosting across her cheek. "And you don't even realize…" She presses her lips to his briefly before sitting up and shifting her hips. She stares into his eyes, that greenest of greens anchoring her, lending stability to her trembling voice even as she takes him in. "…how much that makes you a hero…" The last syllable dissolves into a gasp as she sinks down on him fully and his fingers dig into her thighs. Her eyelids flutter but she keeps her gaze fixed on his. They hold tight to each other for a moment, savoring the searing heat and sense of completion.

"Milady," Hiccup breathes, and his hips twitch beneath hers, seeking friction, and Astrid obliges. She raises herself up and slides down on him again, pleasure shocking through her. Hiccup jerks into her next thrust and already she feels tension beginning to build. It won't take much; not with how close she was when they were interrupted. She rolls her hips over his faster and faster. Her back arches, her nails dig into the back of the hand he has on her hip, and through it all those green green eyes bore into hers.

He looks at her as if she is the only thing in the world, the only thing that matters; the haze of grief and fear and worry in his eyes replaced by love and lust and pure adoration. She focuses on those eyes even as her hips lose rhythm, forcing herself not to look away until the moment the mounting tension breaks and she throws back her head and sobs out his name.

And a moment later when she hears her name in a broken string of syllables on his lips as he follows her into ecstasy, she knows she has pulled him miles and miles away from everything that plagues him.

x

"Wait, so she's fine with it?"

Hiccup frowns. "Well, she doesn't like it, but she's not mad either, and she knows she can't exactly stop me, so I guess she's just kind of…resigned to it?" He shrugs. "I think she's just weirded out more than anything. Before that I don't think it had really registered to her that I'm a grown-up."

"Using the term 'grown-up' really loosely here, are we?"

Hiccup glares at her, but there's a hint of a smirk on his lips. "You know what I mean."

Astrid nods. "Yes. Using a piece of scrap metal to sled down the ice spikes is exactly the sort of thing a responsible adult in a position of authority would do."

He starts to reply, looking indignant but playful, but then shakes his head and grabs her hands. "Okay, okay, seriously though, now." He fixes her with a look. "You'll be relieved to know my mom doesn't hate you. And she told me to tell you that you don't have to run and hide whenever you see her anymore."

"I haven't been running and hiding!" Astrid says, but she can't look him in the eye as she says it. Hiccup has been avoiding Valka the last couple of days, so she has as well. Now that Hiccup and his mother seem to have come to some sort of agreement she feels some relief, though not much. Maybe she can at least face Valka now without wanting the ground to swallow her up. When she looks back at Hiccup he's got his eyebrows raised in that way that says he doesn't believe her and she purses her lips at him. "And even if I have, can you blame me? Your mother saw us having sex."

"Gobber's seen us, and you didn't avoid him after."

Astrid rolls her eyes. "Yeah, but Gobber's Gobber." She'd been embarrassed when that had happened, sure, especially since such intimacy was still a fairly recent development in their relationship at the time, but nowhere near what she feels about this incident. Probably because Gobber hadn't even looked surprised. He'd blinked at them and then burst into laughter. As he'd walked away he'd shouted back telling them that as long as they kept that business out of his forge he'd promise not to breathe a word to Stoick.

Valka is different. Valka had clearly been shocked. Valka clearly hadn't been expecting them to be at that stage in their relationship. Valka is his mother.

But it's fine. It's going to be fine. Astrid resolves herself to treat Valka as if everything is just fine.

x

The next few days are among the weirdest of her life.

With Stoick, she always felt a strange sort of pride at what they got up to behind his back. She delighted in greeting him with a smile in the village square as if she hadn't snuck out of his window that morning after screwing his son senseless while he slept peacefully in the room below. (Stoick was an unnaturally heavy sleeper. So much so that Astrid had to wonder how he hadn't slept through all those nighttime dragon raids in years past. Hiccup had made her scream once, and they'd both panicked, expecting Stoick to come thundering up the stairs with an axe in hand any second. After several minutes of silent anxiety during which they'd alternated between trying to throw on their clothes and figure out where Astrid could hide if needed, Hiccup had snuck downstairs and found his father still slumbering away, snoring loudly. They hadn't tried as hard to be quiet after that.)

With Valka, it is a different matter entirely. Possibly because Valka knows. Sometimes Valka smiles at her and Astrid feels like the older woman can see right through her. As if her and Hiccup's debauchery is so plainly obvious that she might as well have a sign above her head that reads, 'Two hours ago I had my thighs wrapped around your son's head.'

She knows it's ridiculous. Valka has behaved as if the whole thing never happened, and Astrid knows the older woman wants to forget what she's seen just as much as Astrid wants to forget being seen, but every so often…

It's stupid, and Astrid can't believe she's letting it get to her like this.

Every so often they'll be talking, and Astrid will mention something innocuous, like saying she's going to be spending the afternoon with Hiccup. And then Valka will ask what they're planning to do, but then she'll catch herself, and hastily add something like, "Not that it matters," which seems to be code for 'if you're going to be doing something carnal then I really don't want to know.' Astrid will usually catch her meaning and rush to give her a full itinerary of every single chaste activity they have planned for the afternoon. Valka never says anything, even when Astrid is so flustered that she's obviously lying, and the whole thing is just so casual that it's driving Astrid insane.

Because everything is so casual: the way everyone is treating Valka's sudden return from the dead, the way Hiccup and Valka are living their happy little family life as if he hadn't spent his entire life without the slightest concept of what it was like to have a mother; the way Valka continues to assure Astrid of how much she approves of her as if there is some big reason she shouldn't; the way they are all acting as if Valka had not seen her son and future daughter-in-law in bed together. All of it is just so casual and nonchalant and non-confrontational.

Astrid doesn't do non-confrontational.

Astrid is the exact opposite of non-confrontational.

She's at Hiccup's house one evening, lazing about by the fire and mending one of his shirts while she waits for her boyfriend to return from some chiefly matter or other. It's an ordinary sort of evening for her. Five years in and she came and went in the Haddock house as if she already lived there, and neither Hiccup nor Stoick had ever been surprised to come home to find her there waiting by herself.

Valka walks in the door, muttering to herself, and starts when she sees Astrid by the hearth. "Oh, hello dear," she says after a moment, giving her that utterly warm, accepting smile. "Don't mind me," she says, waving a hand, "Years alone and I've rather started talking to myself sometimes." And then she smiles and starts to walk off and for some reason Astrid just snaps.

She puts down the needle and shirt in her hands and stands up. "Why don't you just come out and say it?" Valka stops and turns to blink at her.

"Say what?"

Astrid feels her cheeks warm up. "That you don't like it. That it bothers you that Hiccup and I are, are," she looks away, "…intimate." She forces herself to look back at Valka. "You're always so okay with it. Like you're too okay with it. Like you're so okay with it that you're really not okay with it at all. So why don't you just come right out and say it. Tell me that you don't like what he and I are doing. Tell me that you think I'm a slut. Tell me you're disappointed that your son picked a girl who couldn't keep her legs closed before the wedding." There. She'd said it. She feels better for all of about five seconds before Valka blinks at her in utter confusion and the panic sets in.

Oh sweet Freya, what has she done?

"Okay," Valka says, taking a deep breath. "Let's start at the beginning, there." Her mouth purses into a thin line for a brief moment before she speaks. "First off I don't think you're a slut. It'd be hypocritical of me to." She looks down and Astrid raises her eyebrows. "I was still a maid when I married Stoick, but he and I had certainly gotten a bit more physical than was generally considered appropriate." A small smile twitches at her lips. "To be honest I was afraid to be with him that way, even though I wanted to. He was so much older than me, and certainly more experienced in those matters; I thought that if I gave myself to him before the wedding he'd be so disappointed that he'd call the whole thing off." Her smile fades and she looks up. "It was fear that kept me a virgin, not self-control. I've no place to fault you your choices. That's not why all of this bothers me."

Astrid swallows. This was a lot less nerve-wracking when she thought she knew where this was going."Then why not?"

"Because I…Hiccup…" Valka's face crumples. "Because he doesn't need me." Astrid blinks at her. Valka continues. "It hadn't really set in, you know, just how grown up he was. I mean, I knew he was twenty, I knew he had a girl he was going to marry, I knew he was the chief, but I didn't really know it." She shrugs. "I don't really know how to explain it. I had my son back, and I wasn't thinking about it much more thoroughly than that. I wasn't really thinking about all that him being so grown up meant. He's my son, but he's too old to need a mother. He's got you." Astrid absently tugs at the cording wrapping the furs to her arm, suddenly feeling guilty without really knowing why. Valka gives her a tired sort of smile. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that he's got you; I think it's grand. But seeing the two of you, realizing what that means…" she trails off and casts her eyes around the room. She looks sad and more than a bit lost. "This isn't my house anymore," she says softly.

Her gaze lands on Astrid. "It's going to be yours soon. It's practically yours now. I'm not the lady of the Haddock household anymore, and I can't keep living here for much longer. I certainly can't keep living here once you two get married." She looks so sad as she says it that Astrid feels a surge of remorse and takes a step forward, shaking her head.

"Of course you can," she says, determined. "This is still your home; no one's going to throw you out of it. Hiccup won't mind and neither will I. You can still live here."

Valka laughs and then gives her a knowing smile. "Oh, no, I can't. Things change after marriage. Suddenly you don't have to sneak around anymore and you wind up spending a lot more time together." She glances at the door to Stoick's old bedroom, the one she now sleeps in, before giving Astrid a pointed look. "And before long you'll be needing that spare bedroom." Now that's a thought. Astrid's cheeks burn but she says nothing. Valka steps forward and places her hands on Astrid's shoulders and she hesitantly looks up. "My problems are my own, Astrid; they have nothing to do with you. I left my baby behind and I have to deal with the consequences of that decision. I can't just pick up where I left off. We have to start over and I have to find where I fit into his life, and it's not by disturbing your place in it."

She takes Astrid's hands. "But I want to be a part of his life. I want to get to know him. I want to get to know you. You're strong and you're fearless and you're not afraid to speak up; an admirable quality in my opinion." Astrid gives her a shy smile and pulls her hands away. She's never quite sure how to respond when Valka starts complimenting her. She's used to having to prove herself. Having someone see her strength so easily and immediately is strangely almost unnerving. But most of all she worries that Valka doesn't really see it.

"Why do you keep doing that?" she asks, and Valka tilts her head in confusion. "You keep complimenting me." Astrid clarifies, frowning. "Ever since you met me. As soon as you met me. You've been complimenting me and telling me how much you like me and how amazing you think I am and how happy you are that I'm marrying Hiccup. Why?"

Valka takes a step back and blinks at her. "Because I am?"

Astrid taps her foot, feeling restless all of a sudden. "Why? You hardly know me."

Valka shrugs. "I don't have to know you. I know Hiccup likes you. Is that not enough?"

"No!" Astrid bursts, flinging her hands into the air. Valka is taken aback. Her eyes go wide as she stares down at the wild, exasperated young woman in front of her. Astrid huffs and tries to compose herself; tries to tell the fifteen year old girl watching her chance of proving her merit as a warrior slip away in the arena to sit down. She straightens her back and holds her head up high. "I'm ranked second in the dragon races behind Hiccup, and I've beaten him more than a few times. There's no one on this island with better aim with an axe than me. I can speak Gaelic and a little Latin. I can cook anything as long as I have a recipe but I've been told that bad things happen when I try to make up my own. I can sew well enough to mend things but I can't make anything and I can't knit to save my life. And one year on Snoggletog I blew up half the village because I didn't know dragon eggs explode."

Valka nods, still looking confused. "Alright."

Astrid sighs. "My point is, I want you to like me because I'm Hiccup's girlfriend, but I don't want you to like me because I'm Hiccup's girlfriend."

Valka's mouth forms a small 'o', suddenly comprehending. She looks down and worries the hem of her shirt. "I see," she says softly. She sighs and looks up. She's not really that old, Astrid thinks. She must have been quite young when Hiccup was born. Probably no older than Astrid is now. "Astrid, I don't just see you through Hiccup's eyes, I want you to know that. But I don't know you that well, you're right." She tries a smile. "But I like everything I do know. And I want to keep getting to know you, and I want you to keep getting to know me. I want to find out what I don't like about you. I want you to find out the things about me that'll make me an annoying mother-in-law." Astrid laughs despite herself, and Valka grins. "I don't want to know everything, mind you, so perhaps I should start wearing a bell or announcing my presence before I enter the house."

Something about that wicked grin on Valka's face makes it funny instead of embarrassing, and Astrid finds herself giggling. "Maybe that's your annoying mother-in-law trait."

Valka makes a disgusted face. "Oh dear gods, I hope not. Once was enough." They're both laughing now, and Astrid feels like something between them has lifted. When they settle Valka gives her a kind smile that for the first time doesn't make Astrid feel nervous. "No, I think I'll build myself a house near the stables. I'm used to being surrounded by dragons and I miss curling up next to Cloudjumper." She winks. "And I'll make you a deal. You teach me how to cook, and I'll teach you how to sew and knit. I use to make all sorts of things. I made Hiccup a stuffed dragon once. I wasn't very good at a lot of domestic things, but I was good at that."

Astrid returns her smile and holds out a hand. "You've got a deal."

Valka bypasses her hand and tugs her into her arms.

x

She gives her feet a much-needed momentary rest while she watches Hiccup dance with his mother. Valka looks the happiest that Astrid has ever seen her, and for the first time in months it feels as if the veil of sadness that had settled over Berk in the wake of Stoick's death has lifted. Everyone in the village knew how excited their chief had been about his son's impending nuptials, and his absence now seemed to be filled up by the joy everyone knew he'd have been feeling. Astrid remembers the first time he saw her after Hiccup had told him he intended to ask her parents for her hand. He'd beamed at her like a child on Snoggletog morning and scooped her up into a hug that could have cracked her bones, proclaiming, "My future daughter-in-law!" As she caught her breath after he'd put her down he'd given her a stern look marred by a smile and said, "Now, no more of this calling me 'chief' business. You'll be family soon. It'll be Stoick, or even Dad if y'like. But not chief." She'd laughed and agreed and he'd kissed her forehead, and she could have sworn she saw tears in his eyes. "You'll make a beautiful bride, Astrid."

He used to say that a lot, and so does Valka. She used to find it strange, because she's never given much thought to her appearance, though she is dimly aware that she's considered beautiful, until one day Valka told her so and Gobber made a remark about wanting pretty grandbabies.

She does, as it turns out, make a beautiful bride. The dress Valka had helped her make is stunning. The cerulean silk had been passed from trader to trader all the way from other side of the world, and dragons weave throughout the elaborate motifs embroidered in gold thread and Stormfly's scales along the hem and sleeves. Her mother and aunt had spent hours on the intricate braids in her hair while Astrid sat there trying not to giggle thinking of how frustrated she and Hiccup would be trying to pull them all out later. Her mother's bridal crown had been lost in a dragon raid years ago, but the one Gobber had made her, his gift to her, is so elegant and delicate she'd marveled at how he'd managed it with only one hand. Gold and silver set with lapis lazuli he claimed had come from as far south as Egypt glitters in her hair.

When Astrid had seen herself all put together she'd thought she looked like a Deadly Nadder, and for the first time understood what Valka had really meant when she'd said she was as strong as she was beautiful.

And when Hiccup saw her and looked at her as if he couldn't believe she was real, well…she could have spread her wings and flown.

The song finishes and his mother spins him around and pushes him in her direction. He takes her into his arms and gives her that look again. It's the same one he's been giving her all night: the one that says that as happy as they are, as much fun as they are having, he really can't wait to get out of here and have her all to himself. It thrills her. It won't be their first time together, of course, but it will be their first night as husband and wife, and their first in their house now that it really is theirs. Hiccup hasn't even allowed her to see the renovations yet.

She reminds herself to breathe, to live in the moment and enjoy it. She'll only get one wedding, and she should soak up every glorious minute.

But she'd be lying if she doesn't admit the overwhelming anticipation she feels as Hiccup lifts the bridal crown from her head, or the relief that crashes over her as the door closes behind the witnesses and they are alone at last.

They smile at each other for a silent minute before they both step forward and Astrid throws her arms around his shoulders. Hiccup buries his face in her neck and they hold each other in a tight embrace for a long moment. "I love you so much," Hiccup murmurs into her hair and Astrid grins. He picks her up and spins her around, and when he sets her down again he's giving her a strange sort of smile.

"What?" she asks, toying absently with one of the braids at the back of his neck. There's a fireplace and chimney in the corner of their room, and the red in his hair shines in the firelight. She finds herself hoping their children have red hair. Hiccup shakes his head and laughs.

There's something like awe and disbelief laced in with the love that's been shining in his eyes all day. "Do you ever have one of those moments when you look around and you're just like, 'how the Hel did this become my life?'"

Astrid giggles and presses close to him. "Occasionally. What's bringing it on now?"

His smile fades and he looks at her seriously, but the warmth doesn't leave those intense green eyes. "I used to think you were never gonna look at me twice."

Astrid smiles softly and presses her forehead to his. "I was always looking," she whispers, giving his arm a light punch. "I just couldn't always admit that I liked what I saw."

Hiccup beams at her and she can't resist the urge to kiss him any longer. It's a simple, almost chaste sort of kiss; sweet and affectionate. She opens her eyes to peek at his smile before he kisses her again, and there is nothing chaste about this kiss. He pulls her against him and she grips his shoulders tightly as he devours her. Her disappointed whimper when he pulls away fades into a moan when he latches onto her neck and sucks at the pulse point. His hands are tortuously slow as he tugs loose the laces of her dress.

"Hiccup," she breathes, and then gasps as he sweeps her legs out from under her, scooping her up bridal style. "Hiccup!" she giggles and punches his arm again.

"Something the matter, Mrs. Haddock?"

Astrid scoffs. "Well, for starters, I'm not actually Mrs. Haddock."

Hiccup frowns at her. "Uh, yeah you are. That was kind of the whole point of today."

Astrid waves her hand in dismissal. "No, no, no, I distinctly remember being told this morning when they were all going on about wifely duties that there's something about how this whole marriage thing isn't technically official until it's been consummated or something. But of course that was all gibberish to my virginal ears. It's not like I would have the slightest idea what I'm expected to—Hiccup, Hiccup, don't you dare, no, I will gut you-aaahh!" She screams when he tosses her onto the bed, and after that there's a lot more laughing and kissing than talking as they help each other out of their clothes.

Those intense eyes stare into hers and her heart hammers with anticipation as he hovers over her, his hands combing gently through what hair they'd managed to liberate from her braids. "All those years ago if someone had told me that we'd end up here one day," he says, his voice low and raspy with need, "I would have been thrilled. But you know what?" he asks, pulling her closer. His lips brush hers with every word and she wraps her legs around his waist. His voice is barely above a whisper when he answers. "That stupid kid would've had no idea how much I was gonna love you."

Astrid smiles and pecks his chin. She remembers being fifteen, and watching that strange scrawny boy out of the corner of her eye, and feeling frustrated that she found him so intriguing. "Hey, be nice to that stupid kid," she chides. "That's my husband you're talking about."

Oh, and if she could capture one moment and carry it around forever it would be this one. His grin, the firelight dazzling in his eyes, the buzzing in her blood and the way her skin tingles everywhere it meets his. She wants to preserve it in her heart and keep it there for the rest of her life.

And then he breathes, "My wife," into her ear as he enters her, and she thinks she may never feel fear again.

X

She does eventually, of course.

One night in particular, a couple years later, when Hiccup is far away and Stormfly ushers a confused and bedraggled Valka into their house. She's not just feeling fear, she's feeling complete and utter terror. She's not sure she's ever been so afraid of anything in her life. And it makes absolutely no sense because she wanted this.

"Oh no," Valka says, immediately crossing to Astrid's side to pull her hair out of the way. "I thought the village had seen the last of that illness for the season."

Astrid lifts her face from the bucket on her lap. "Oh, it probably has," she says, before her stomach turns and she empties more of her supper into the bucket. She coughs and blinks up at Valka. "How do you know if you're pregnant?"

xx

to be continued...

A/N: Part 2 is already written, so after some final proofreading I'm planning on posting part 2 tomorrow.