Just a warning: Astrid's pregnancy symptoms did require me to mention some aspects of being female that might be awkward for my male readers. I tried very hard to be discreet so I don't think it'll be an issue. Just throwing that out there.

~KateMarie999

Chapter Three: A Surprising Discovery

Astrid stomped out of the house, leaving the smell of burnt fish and her husband behind. She wasn't sure why she had been so angry with him. She wasn't usually so volatile. What had changed? In a moment, she decided that she needed the company of other women. The only other woman she could think of that wasn't her mother (her mother would just glare at her and tell her she was being immature) was Ruffnut. Not comforted by this thought, she changed direction and headed over to Ruffnut and Tuffnut's house.

She took a moment to thank the gods that Tuffnut had decided to take Barf and Belch to get their teeth cleaned by Gobber. He tended to interrupt every discussion Ruffnut and Astrid tried to have with completely random outbursts. Snotlout was also nowhere to be seen, which was definitely a good thing.

"Why are you here?" was Ruffnut's greeting when Astrid knocked on the door.

"I'm mad at Hiccup." Astrid admitted.

"Oh. Okay." Ruffnut said, opening the door to let Astrid in.

As usual, Ruffnut didn't press for details. Astrid liked this about her sole female friend. She wasn't one to confess her feelings and Ruffnut didn't have patience for them anyway. If she wanted to get emotional about something, Astrid knew her husband would be more than happy to let her cry on him for hours. Not that she ever did anything so ridiculous...

"You look sick." said Ruffnut quite suddenly.

"Yeah, I broke my arm." Astrid replied, pointing to her bandaged arm.

"Not that kind of sick. Like, you look like Tuffnut does every time he breathes in Barf's gas." Ruffnut shrugged. "Except you don't fall over. I like it when he falls over."

Not enjoying the mental picture this statement sparked, Astrid rolled her eyes. The idea of having a deep conversation with Ruffnut was laughable. Times like this made her miss Heather.

"I'm not sick." Astrid said bluntly. "I just fell and hit my arm."

Ruffnut shook her head. "No, it's still different. Like, your face is all white and kind of green and you're sometimes hunched over like you just got punched in the back. Did Hiccup punch you in the back?"

"No, of course not." Astrid said. "Why would you think that?"

"Sometimes Tuffnut punches me in the back."

Why did this information not surprise her in the slightest? Truth be told, the smell of burnt fish did make her feel sick. But the wave of nausea would subside like all the other ones.

"I'm just really hungry, that's all." Astrid said, scanning the house to see if there was any food out.

"Oh. I have bread." Ruffnut picked up a loaf and offered it to her. "It's actually Tuffnut's but I'll just tell him Barf ate it."

Astrid chuckled and accepted the loaf. She ravenously tore it apart and ate it in a most decidedly unladylike manner. Her mother would have been furious but Ruffnut couldn't care less.

"Wow, you were really hungry." Ruffnut said, raising her eyebrows at Astrid's behavior. "Want more? I think Tuffnut has some fish I can cook over the fire."

At this point, Astrid was so hungry she didn't care that she was stealing from Tuffnut. Knowing the twins, there was probably food all over the place. They tended to eat almost as much as Fishlegs (but unlike Fishlegs, they never put on much weight).

As the fish sizzled over the fire, a pleasant but potent smell filled the house. For some reason, this made Astrid's nausea nearly unbearable. She stood up and pelted out of the house. As soon as she got outside, she vomited in the bush next to the front door.

She walked back into the house, feeling a lot better but rather embarrassed. Ruffnut stared at her for a few seconds, obviously deep in thought.

"Are you pregnant?" she asked at last, raising an eyebrow.

Astrid laughed out loud. "No way! That's impossible!"

"Oh. So you get that annoying thing every month?"

Astrid did not want to discuss that with anyone, least of all Ruffnut. But the question made her think back. Had she gotten it? She tried to remember the last time... it had been... oh Thor, it had been a few weeks before her wedding. In her excitement, she hadn't realized it wasn't happening anymore... which meant... her eyes widened.

"Oh gods... oh gods..." Astrid sat down, suddenly dizzy.

Her mother had told her about the back pain, the nausea, the mood swings, the dizzy spells... this couldn't be happening. Not now. Oh gods, not now. She felt a knot in the pit of her stomach. Or was that the baby? Oh gods, a baby... there was a baby growing inside of her body. A brand new human life... inside of her... growing... it was going to get bigger and then she was going to have to give birth. She didn't know anything about babies! Hiccup didn't know anything about babies! Oh gods, Hiccup... how was she going to tell him?

Ruffnut thrust a plate with a perfectly cooked fish in front of her. Had she not realized this horrifying bit of information, she would have marveled at the fact that Ruffnut had managed to actually cook something without burning it.

"Woah. You're pregnant! That was fast!" Ruffnut shouted.

"Keep your voice down! I don't want everyone finding out!" Astrid whispered hurriedly. "And yes, I think so. Oh gods, I'm not ready for this."

"But you're gonna tell Hiccup, right?" Ruffnut asked, cocking her head like a confused dragon.

"Yeah... yeah probably. Eventually." Astrid put her head in her hands.

Ruffnut's eyes suddenly widened. "Wait, Hiccup's the dad, right?"

Astrid kicked her in the shin as hard as she could. Ruffnut didn't react. Years of abuse from Tuffnut had given her very thick skin.

"Of course Hiccup's the dad! Who else would it be? No! Don't answer that!" Astrid said from between her fingers.

At that completely inopportune moment, Tuffnut walked into the house, banging the door behind him. He was carrying a single, bloody tooth.

"Look! Gobber took this out of Belch's mouth!" he said excitedly, brandishing it in front of Ruffnut's face. "Why's she here?" he asked, gesturing to Astrid.

"She's mad at Hiccup for getting her pregnant." said Ruffnut unabashedly.

"But you can't be pregnant. You're not fat!" Tuffnut said rather loudly.

Both Ruffnut and Astrid kicked him in the knees so hard, he fell over. Ruffnut burst out laughing.

"Keep your voice down! I'm not ready to tell anyone else!" Astrid shouted.

"Fine, whatever. So is Hiccup mad at you too?" Tuffnut asked, sitting down next to his sister.

Astrid didn't enjoy being put on display. The twins were staring at her as if expecting her to give birth any second. Both sets of eyes kept flitting down to her stomach. She placed her hands over it, hoping to avert their wandering eyes.

"He doesn't know." Astrid admitted. "I only just figured it out. Hey... can I sleep here tonight? I don't think I want to go home right now."

"Okay. You can have Tuffnut's bed!" Ruffnut exclaimed happily.

"Where am I gonna sleep?" Tuffnut whined.

"You can sleep in the pen with Barf and Belch." Ruffnut said automatically.

"Hmm... okay." Tuffnut said and without another word, he got up and walked outside.

Astrid walked into her house early the next morning. She was hoping Hiccup would not be awake yet so she could have time to think about how she would tell him... or if she would tell him right that second. She could still smell the burnt fish from the night before and it made her stomach lurch uncomfortably. She hoped she wouldn't be sick on the floor.

Hiccup was standing by the barrel of fish when he noticed her.

"Hey." he said, smiling grimly. "You... you okay?"

She was a lot of things but okay wasn't one of them.

"Me? Yes! Why wouldn't I be?" she said far too quickly.

She watched Hiccup toss a fish into Toothless' mouth without even looking at him.

"Because I'm your husband and I can tell something's wrong." he said, giving her a very concerned look.

"Hiccup, please. I... what happened yesterday, I'm sorry but I don't want to talk about this." Astrid took off her shoulder armor. She didn't even want to think about it, much less talk about it.

"Where were you?" Hiccup gave her what she thought was his attempt at a gentle look. Since he was obviously anxious about her, it came off as very fake.

"I went over to see Ruffnut. And she..." No. The words wouldn't come out of her mouth. It wasn't enough that it was Ruffnut who had made her realize she was pregnant but she couldn't bear to see her husband lookingat her like... like that. "I can't talk about this right now." Astrid repeated, hoping that he would leave her alone if she walked toward the stairs.

Hiccup slowly followed her. "Astrid, please. You can tell me anything. I'm sorry that I was being... me yesterday. I'll stop, I get that I was being overbearing. I was thinking about it last night and..."

She was begging the gods to make him shut up. How had he misunderstood when she had told him twice that she didn't want to talk about it?

"It's not that, Hiccup! I... please don't... I can't have this conversation right now. I have a lot to think about!" Astrid put her foot on the first step. Please let him leave her alone...

"What's wrong? Did I do something? Did Ruffnut do something?"

Of course he would automatically assume he was to blame. He was already sore over being unable to catch her when she fell off Stormfly. Gods, he was annoying. She felt helpless, unable to get him to stop nagging her. All she wanted was to be alone...

"Hiccup, please..."

Hiccup took another step toward her. "Just tell me what's going on!"

Something suddenly snapped inside of her. She whirled her head around and glared at her husband. He was going to regret saying that.

"Fine!" she snapped. "Fine, if you have to know right this second!"

Hiccup faltered slightly, shrinking away from her glare. ""Well I don't... what are you..."

"Hiccup... I..." Astrid paused. She didn't have to tell him now. For a moment, she couldn't form the words. His eyes shone with compassion and concern... she had to say it. He deserved to know. "I'm pregnant!"

She couldn't take it anymore. She turned her head away from him and pounded up the stairs. As soon as she got into their room, she flung herself on her bed, praying that he wouldn't follow her. After a few minutes, she decided that he probably wasn't going to barge in and expect her to talk about it so she curled up and fell asleep.

Hiccup stood stock still, his mouth agape and his hand frozen on the banister. He felt as though his world was spinning and that if he moved, he would fall upwards and disappear into the sky.

A few minutes later, he felt a gentle nudging on his back. Toothless crooned, his eyes wide with concern. Slowly, Hiccup moved his hand over and stroked the dragon's nose.

"I'm a dad." he said at last. The moment the words tumbled out of his mouth, his insides seemed to freeze completely.

He sat down on the lowest step, feeling very dizzy all of a sudden. Toothless plopped himself down next to his trainer. The human absentmindedly stroked the dragon's neck and back while using his other hand to hold up his head.

"This is going to be a very scary next few months." said Hiccup, taking a deep breath. "If Astrid and I fight over something as dumb as burning fish, how are we going to raise a child?"

Toothless looked at him as though he desperately wanted to assure his human that everything would be okay. He whined quietly.

"I need to talk to someone. I mean... I can talk to you but... I'm sorry, bud. I need some advice and I doubt you know anything about fatherhood." The dragon whined again. "Hey, you can still come with me. Let's go."

Hiccup immediately stood up and walked out of his house. The sunny day outside swam in front of his eyes and it was nothing short of a miracle that he managed to get to his father's house without tripping over something or getting lost along the way.

Stoick was feeling Thornado when he saw his son slowly sauntering over to him, almost as if he was getting over a blast from a Flightmare. His body was rigid, his eyes glazed over.

"Hiccup?" Stoick said, taking a few steps toward his son. "What's going on?"

Hiccup seemed to snap out of his reverie rather abruptly. He stared at his father as though he had only just noticed he was there. He opened his mouth but no sound came out. After a few seconds, he shut it with an audible snap.

Stoick knew something was very wrong because his son's silence was often a bigger indicator than his chattiness. Hiccup had a tendency to blurt out everything on his mind as quickly as possible. It was yet another way he differed from his father.

"All right, son, sit down." Stoick grabbed the young man by his shoulders and directed him to a chair resting against the side of the house.

Half tempted to splash water on his son's face, Stoick exchanged a glace with Toothless, who cooed at him.

"Problems with Astrid?" Stoick asked. Discussing feelings wasn't something he excelled at but Hiccup had clearly come to him for a reason.

"You could say that." Hiccup said at last, not making eye contact. "If you want to get technical, I had a lot to do with it myself."

Stoick sighed. "Listen, son, what happened on the dragons, that wasn't your fault. You've got to stop beating yourself up about it. These things happen and-"

"Astrid's pregnant!" Hiccup blurted out.

Whatever Stoick had been expecting, it certainly wasn't that. For a moment, father and son stared at each other in silence, neither able to figure out what to say and both feeling rather awkward.

"Oh..." Stoick said. "That was fast."

"Yeah."

"So what are you going to do about it?"

Hiccup stared at his knees. "I don't know. I mean... I did this..."

"You both did it." Stoick interrupted. "Don't try to pin this on yourself."

"Right, I know. But we should have been more careful." Hiccup put his head in his hands.

"Well you weren't and it happened." Stoick said sternly. "And now you've got to face the consequences. You and Astrid are going to have to stick together and work out all your differences for that baby."

"I know, dad." Hiccup said from between his fingers. "But... I'm not ready for this. We're not ready for this." His head shot up. "Yesterday, we got into an argument over fish. Fish, dad! It was stupid!"

Stoick laughed uproariously. Hiccup stared at him, slowly raising an eyebrow. As soon as Stoick calmed down, he began to speak.

"The day we found out you were on the way, your mother and I got into an argument over a tile in the roof." Hiccup continued to stare blankly at the man, still confused as ever. Stoick continued. "She claimed that it was loose and it was making the house cold. I told her she was being completely unreasonable. She started crying, we kept shouting... after it was over, I was convinced that we would never be able to raise you properly."

Hiccup's mouth dropped open in surprise. He had no memories of his mother ever shouting at his father. In fact, up until she died, they had been quite calm and nurturing. Even after she died, Stoick tried his best to be patient with his son but Hiccup had, admittedly, not been an easy child to raise.

"I know it seems like a lot now. And it is. Having a kid is the most difficult thing you will ever do." Stoick smiled. "But it's also the most rewarding."

"Well... it... I mean it happened so fast, I... what am I supposed to do?" Hiccup asked, continuing to stare at his father with wide eyes.

"Well the first thing you have to do is make sure Astrid knows that you're going to be there for her." Stoick said, pulling out a chair and sitting across from his son.

"She knows that. I mean, why would I leave? Where would I go?" Hiccup asked. The very thought of leaving Astrid made him physically ill, exacerbated by the thought of leaving her alone while carrying his child.

"Tell her again. She needs to know that you're going to be there no matter what happens." Stoick made sure Hiccup was meeting his gaze before he continued. "And then you have to let nature take its course. Make sure you're there every step of the way. I don't pretend to know much about... this, but I do know that the next few months are going to be rough. For both of you but especially for her."

Hiccup's eyebrows furrowed. "Is this what you did?"

"It's what I should have done. I wasn't as attentive as I could have been. Even after you were born. I guess that's why we've always been..." Stoick trailed off and then cleared his throat.

"Okay... and what about when the baby comes? How do I... when will it..."

"You've got plenty of time to think about that. Right now is about being there for Astrid." Stoick paused for a moment before standing up quite suddenly. "Now I've got some things to do so if we're finished..."

"Right." Hiccup stood up. "I guess I'll... I'll go talk to Astrid."

And with that, he sauntered away, his dragon at his heels. He felt considerably less dizzy than before, which was definitely a good thing, but his stomach was still twisting. He felt completely unprepared for this. But, just as he got to the front door of his house, he made a decision. He was going to act happy about this until he was happy about it. And it was all going to start at that moment, as he pushed his front door open.

Astrid woke up several hours later. It took her a few minutes to figure out why she was so nervous. Earlier that day, she didn't even want to look at her husband. Now she desperately wanted him there.

Almost as if on cue, Hiccup walked into their room with a plate full of cooked fish. All of them looked delicious.

"You did it." Astrid said, smiling and immediately cutting one up the moment the plate was set in front of her.

"Yeah well... those are the ones that turned out okay. Don't ask how many tries it took me to figure it out."

Astrid chuckled. "I'm sorry for snapping at you."

"It's okay, you don't have to apologize..."

"Hey." Astrid suddenly grabbed the front of Hiccup's shirt and brought his face inches away from her own. "Do not make excuses for me just because of the baby."

"Oh... okay." Hiccup said, startled. "Well yeah, you shouldn't have snapped at me."

"Much better." Astrid released him.

They were silent for a while. Hiccup watched as Astrid began to feed herself pieces of the fish. She was getting much better at doing things left handed.

"How's your arm?" Hiccup asked, feeling very awkward all of a sudden.

"It still itches. But it doesn't hurt so much anymore." Astrid admitted through a mouthful of fish. "Hiccup, I'm sorry I blurted it out like that and then ran off. I shouldn't have done that."

"I made you do it."

"Don't blame yourself for... actually yeah you did." she smiled. "Okay so that was partially your fault too."

"Nice to know you're willing to let me take the blame when I really deserve it." he said, smiling back.

"You know I will." Astrid took his hand. "And this won't be the last time either. We've got a life full of stupid mistakes to make."

"Yeah." said Hiccup, staring at their clasped hands. "But this baby isn't one of them."

"No." she admitted. As uneasy as she felt, her baby didn't ask to be conceived. "I agree but... how are we going to do this?"

"Well first of all, we're going to get everything all ready." Hiccup squeezed her hand. "We'll move our wedding gifts out of the extra room and get it ready and then we'll sit back and wait for the baby to get here. And until then, I'll do everything for you..."

"Oh gods, Hiccup, you better not-"

"I'm kidding." Hiccup winked at her.

She let go of his hand to punch him on the shoulder. They stared at each other for a few seconds. Hiccup felt slightly overwhelmed at how much he loved his wife. She had just woken up, was pale in the face, and had bags under her eyes but she was so beautiful. Her bright blue eyes were still clouded with uncertainty but he knew that it was his job to make her feel loved, to make her feel confident that everything was going to be okay. He felt honored to have been given that task. He lay down on the bed next to her.

Astrid snuggled into her husband the moment he was next to her. She could hear his heartbeat through his shirt; it was such a soothing sound and it seemed to clear her mind of all the clutter that had been there moments before. She felt him put his arm around her and squeeze her shoulder. Slowly, she placed the plate of food on the floor so that she could turn to face him. He smiled warmly at her, melting her heart completely. Even her broken arm stopped hurting for those few seconds. She brushed her lips against his. His smile widened and he gently kissed her on the cheek.

"You know... I've been thinking about it." He whispered to her, his breath tickling her cheek.

"Hm?" she asked, not sure she could form any words.

"I'm going to be happy either way." He kissed her on the cheek again. "But I kind of hope it's a girl."

Completely against her will, several tears forced their way out of her eyes. She hastily tried to brush them away but she couldn't stop Hiccup from seeing them. She knew exactly why he had said that and it was too much. Her emotions had been close to the surface ever since finding out she was pregnant but somehow, she didn't care as much as she would have long ago. Gone were the days when she had put up her defenses against emotional releases around her husband. The rest of the village might have thought of her as a fierce Viking but she knew Hiccup saw someone different. And even in her moments of weakness, he still saw her strength. Perhaps that was why she loved him so much.