When the first monthly blood hadn't come, Astrid hadn't been particularly worried. It happened sometimes to Viking women during the winter months when there wasn't enough variety in their diets. She'd been taking her moon tea every morning so there was no reason to panic.

The second time it'd happened she'd been a bit more nervous. It'd been a good season of trading and as the chief's wife, Astrid had been eating very well. A few other women in the village had fallen pregnant and seeing them smile as their bellies swelled put Astrid on edge.

Once she couldn't keep her food down, she figured it was time to face facts.

She'd come out of the Healer's Hut with a heavy heart and a fair bit of nausea. It somehow felt so much more real when the words were said out loud and there was no way she could deny it anymore.

Motherhood.

Astrid had never really been a big fan of the concept. Sure, it provided women with prestige and importance in the village but Astrid always figured she would earn respect through her skills as a warrior. As she walked through her front door she became instantly aware of how untidy the house was, weapons and other clutter littered the ground and she hadn't gotten around to tidying up after breakfast.

She wasn't good at housework or cooking. Hiccup was good at sewing and mending so she'd never had to deal with any of that. As far as Viking standards went, she was not a good wife. Were it not for that dopey look on Hiccup's face whenever he came home, she might have worried about it. She wasn't fit to be the chief's wife but she knew exactly how to be Hiccup's wife.

But now there was going to be a baby; another person that would depend upon her entirely. How would she be able to take care of the baby if she couldn't even keep the kitchen clean?

There was a squeak from the door hinges and Hiccup step through the threshold. Upon seeing his wife, he smiled and crossed the room to envelop her in a hug. His smell was familiar and comforting and when he pressed a kiss to her forehead, Astrid felt a lot lighter.

Because she wouldn't be doing it alone. Hiccup would be an amazing father, he was kind, funny and compassionate. They were partners and he would pick her up when she faltered. She hugged him back, happily thinking about the future.

She couldn't put it off any more, she would tell him today.

Every time Astrid tried to tell her husband that he was going to be a father, something interrupted and she lost her confidence. She was close to just blurting it out, which she had almost done the night before in the Great Hall.

The throwing up had finally stopped but according to the healer it wouldn't be long before the child would make themselves known by expanding her stomach. So Astrid was running out of time and she knew it.

Teaching at the academy was becoming more treacherous too. Stormfly seemed to sense that something was different and refused to fly too fast or too high. She'd been getting strange looks because of that but she was able to pass it off as an idiosyncrasy of her dragon. Besides most of the pupils were so young that they needed twice as much instruction on the ground before they got in the air.

"Ok so today we're going to focus on communication. Hand signals and dragon calls can come in handy if you and your dragon ever get separated. And learning this skill will help you develop a deeper bond with your dragon." She then went on to show them the basic forms and then supervising and correcting as they practiced.

Truthfully she was just happy that she could spend majority of the lesson off her feet. They seemed to become more painful every day. Other symptoms were beginning to appear, Astrid was starting to feel a little more snug in her furs and she would find herself craving strange foods. Thankfully Hiccup hadn't noticed, believing she was creating new recipes again.

"Looks like things are going well," her head whipped around at the source of her husband's voice. Standing up to greet him, she couldn't help noticing how happy he seemed and his good mood rubbed off on her.

"Hey babe! We're just doing some basic stuff, nothing too hard for the little kids." She spared a second to imagine the mini-Hiccup growing inside her, being taught this stuff. The image made her smile.

"I bet it's more fun than going over all the fish we've brought in over the past few months. I was lucky to sneak away."

"You seem awfully cheerful for someone who's been cataloging fish all day. Did Mrs Ack finally agree to run away with you?"

"Alas, my one true love seems determined to reject me so it looks like you're stuck with me." She smiled at their banter before turning back to check on the kids.

A few of them were struggling to get their dragons to pay attention but for the most part they were getting it. It was kinda adorable to watch them interacting with their dragons and Astrid said a silent prayer of thanks for the man next to her, the one who had given them this life of peace.

"It's gonna be weird when we have one of those." Ok the Gods were punishing her for something because there's no way Hiccup would just say that, out of the blue, when Astrid was trying to tell him that they would be having one, very soon.

"What?" It came out a little high pitched and strangled but considering she felt like there were a million Terrible Terrors in her stomach, it was not too bad.

Hiccup looked terrified, like he was facing down a Monstrous Nightmare. "No, not that we have to have one soon, or at all, if that's that's what you want. I mean, I would never ever push you into something like that, but I did kinda think that we would have one eventually but there's no pressure, none at all."

She had to put him out of his misery.

"Hiccup, I'm pregnant."

Pregnancy was a surprising thing. Everyone talked about how wonderful and important it was but Astrid hadn't heard any woman talk about how difficult it could be.

She had to wake earlier than usual since getting ready would take more and more time. The extra weight she carried made her movements slow and awkward and her hormones made her more susceptible to being upset over the smallest thing.

Hiccup had discovered that his wife liked to displace some of her anger and frustration on him, since he was often the nearest target and it was partly his fault she was like this to begin with. He tried his best to give her space while making sure he was close, should she need him. It was a difficult balancing act for the both of them.

That morning, he'd had to start his chiefing duties before dawn and Astrid had woken up alone in bed, putting her in a foul mood. Then she put on her most comfortable furs only to find that they weren't nearly as soft and loose as usual. She went to get some breakfast only to discover that the baby didn't feel like letting her eat, the nausea too intense. So she'd have to get through the morning with a gnawing pain in her gut.

Not a good start to the day.

She was about to waddle to the Academy to teach a strictly grounded class, there was a loud knock on the door. Before Astrid could even say, "come in," the door swung open to reveal her slightly overbearing mother.

Frieda Hofferson was still considered handsome and she had passed down her fair complexion and blue eyes to her daughter. She'd been one of the most vocal about Astrid's marriage to the chief, thrilled at the splendid match Astrid had made. Unfortunately, she seemed to think that Astrid needed her constant help and advice in order to run Hiccup's house.

"Mum, what are you doing here?" Asked Astrid, with a slight bit of annoyance and 'I so don't have time for this.'

"Darling, do I need a reason to stop by and see my daughter and grandchild?" Striding into the room, Frieda's hands reached for her daughter's stomach. Astrid, still hungry and uncomfortable, shied away from the contact but this didn't stop her mother who just tsked at her.

"You mustn't be so bad tempered, Astrid. It's not becoming." Astrid just rolled her eyes.

"Well, it's been great but I have a class to teach at the Academy so…" She left it open-ended, hoping that her mother would recognise it as an invitation to leave without her actually having to say so.

Instead Frieda grabbed her arm and dragged to her the dining table, making a face at a few stains on the wood. "There is actually something I wanted to discuss with you." Her mother said it expectantly as though Astrid was supposed to jump with joy and anticipation.

"The babe will be here in a few months and I just wanted to give you a little bit of advice. The most important thing is to stay healthy. It will help if you have a girl and need to try again for an heir. And I think it would be a good idea for you to stop training at the Academy and focus on getting everything ready for the babe. I mean, it's not as though you'll be working with dragons after the birth anyway."

Astrid couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her mother was smiling contentedly at her and Astrid had no idea how to respond.

"Of course I'm going to keep teaching at the Academy. I don't want to stay cooped up in a house all day with nothing to do." Just the thought of becoming a bored housewife was completely abhorrent. Astrid was a warrior, a Viking, not meant to sit still.

"You wouldn't have nothing to do, dear. Having a baby is a lot of work and this will just be the first one! Besides you can use your time to focus on being a better wife. You've never been good at housework, cooking or mending and I don't know how you expect to keep the chief's regard if you can't maintain a proper household."

"Have you even met my husband? He doesn't care about any of that." Hiccup was usually so tired at the end of the day that he barely noticed the state of the house and he'd gotten used to her cooking years ago (so long as she didn't try any new recipes).

"Astrid, your life is going to be very different after the baby is born and you are completely unprepared for it! I'm just trying to help you." Now that both women were on the defensive the atmosphere was tense.

"Do you think I'm going to be a bad mother?" Astrid spoke in a dangerously low whisper that would have given most people nightmares. Frieda didn't even flinch.

"I don't think you know how to be a mother. I think that when the baby comes, you're not going to know how to take care of them and when that happens, you're going to wish you'd listened to me."

Astrid Haddock normally handled criticism well but she was pregnant, hungry and offended. "I'm going to love my baby. I will take care of them with everything that I have and I will do it while teaching at the Academy. Now you need to leave, I'm late for my class."

She would worry about making up with her mother another time. The most important thing was that she was determined to be a good mother who would support her children throughout anything.

Astrid couldn't wait until the baby arrived, if only to get Toothless to leave her alone. The Night Fury had been ridiculously protective ever since she started showing. If anything got remotely close to her stomach, Toothless was there to growl and scare it away.

Hiccup thought it was hilarious.

"It's instinctual for dragons to protect their young," he'd said. "Toothless just wants to keep the baby safe." Later that night he'd told her how he worried that if they never found another Night Fury then Toothless would never have his own hatchlings and that made Astrid a little more patient when the dragon was overprotective.

But the last straw was when he chased Stormfly away.

"Toothless!" she'd screamed in surprise when she saw him nip at Stormfly's hind legs. The blue dragon was already upset that she hadn't had a proper flight with her rider in months and this certainly wouldn't help. Stormfly took to the air and was soon just a speck on the horizon. Astrid could only hope she would come back when she calmed down.

Turning to Toothless, she was all set to give him a talking down but found she couldn't when she saw him give her one of his best gummy smiles. Instead she waddled back inside the house, deciding to have a nap before Hiccup came home.

Sleep was impossible most nights but Astrid found she was able to operate if she got a couple hours of rest in the afternoon. Plus she was able to spread out over the whole bed when Hiccup wasn't there.

It felt like she'd only been asleep for seconds when a noise disturbed her. There was her husband, hopping around on one leg, trying to undress without waking her and failing miserably.

"I was trying to be quiet," he whispered, looking guilty. Astrid smiled and patted the space next to her. He climbed in and wrapped his arms around her. It felt nice to just be together, savouring their alone time before the baby arrived.

"Do...do you ever worry that you won't be a good parent?" This was the first time Hiccup had expressed any concern about being a father but when Astrid saw the look on his face it occurred to her that maybe she wasn't the only one who was nervous.

"I'm a little terrified to be honest." She admitted, "my mum keeps saying I won't be able to handle everything and I'm worried she might be right. I'm worried that the baby might not like me. I guess I'm just worried about failing as a mother. But the one thing I'm not worried about is you."

She tilted his head so she could look him in the eyes, not removing it and letting it caress his cheek. "Hiccup, you're the best person I know and if you can't be a good father, I don't know anyone who could. Now tell me where this is coming from."

Hiccup sighed reluctantly but seemed to know she wasn't going to let up on the question. "I loved my dad but for most of my life we just couldn't talk to each other. I was so scared of disappointing him, and I don't want our baby to feel that way about me. But as the chief, I'm busy all the time and I'm worried there won't be enough time for me to be the father I want to be."

His eyes got a little teary, the way they always did when he spoke about his father.

They hugged each other until they fell asleep in each other's arms.

She wished the baby hadn't come in the middle of the day when everyone was awake and curious. Almost every single married woman had come to offer their assistance with the birth and Astrid hated that they had all seen her most private parts.

And then there was the pain.

Vikings were not strangers to pain and Astrid had her fair share of scars to prove it. But this pain was all consuming. It burned and stretched and tore through her like a thousand poisoned blades. How could anyone call this pain beautiful? How could anything justify it?

"You have to push, Astrid or you could lose the babe." She couldn't tell which of the women said them, but those words snapped her back to reality. She had not gone through hours of this torture for nothing.

"Hiccup! I need Hiccup! Please!" It was surprising that her hoarse voice could still be so loud. She opened her eyes in between the contractions to see the women looking at her with disapproving glances. They weren't going to go against tradition, she would have to do this alone.

Another contraction came and then another until there were no breaks to the agony. She pushed with all her might and then further than she'd thought she was capable of.

And then she heard a cry.

She'd heard babies cry before and she'd always found the high pitched screaming to be incredibly irritating. But this was… more. It grabbed at something deep inside her, pulling and demanding something she was happy to give. Her child was making that sound, the child she'd carried and brought into the world.

She needed to see.

Before she could even voice the thought, Valka brought over a little bundle of blankets. She reached out her hands and the most amazing weight in the world was placed in her arms.

"It's a boy," someone cooed but Astrid didn't care. All her attention was solely on the little body in her arms.

"Hello, little one. I'm your Mama." Tears came unbidden into her eyes as they took in the perfect little Viking before her.

The baby was peaceful in his mother's arms, letting out a few soft sounds before drifting off to sleep. Astrid couldn't believe this was what had been in her belly for those long months.

She heard the telltale sound of Hiccup's prosthetic on the stairs and she knew it was time for her baby to meet his father. "Just wait, little one. Daddy's almost here."

Astrid was grinning widely when he finally appeared in the doorway, looking nervous and terrified. The other women looked smug before exiting and leaving the two new parents alone with their son. Hiccup crossed the room faster than she had ever seen, sitting next to her on the bed.

"Would you like to hold your son?"

He looked like he was about to cry too but she didn't think she could tease him for it. "Son?" He asked like he couldn't really believe it. But he held out his arms and even though it was one of the hardest things she had ever done in her life, Astrid relinquished the hold on her son.

"I think we should name him Stoick, after your father."

And just like that, they had a family.