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Astrid’s eyes darted around as her body rocked back and forth. She squeezed them shut in an effort to calm her racing mind, but whipped them open again at the panic of not being able to see what was going on around her.
“Hiccup?” Astrid called, she didn’t remove her gave from in front of her, scared of slipping, falling, falling overboard. Hiccup had told her that the water was calm today, but in Astrid’s eyes, it was tumultuous. The waves crashed in unpredictable patterns and any land had left their sights hours ago. At least that’s what it felt like.
“Yes?” Hiccup replied, Astrid, heard his footsteps approach her. He was quiet for a minute before coming closer to her, taking her hand. “I’d think you got motion sick if it weren’t for your enjoyment when flying.” He was right, she was fine while flying, but on the water, she turned into a nervous wreck. She squeezed his hand and tried to smile, still not averting her gaze from the waves. “You know that flying is more dangerous, right?” Asterid could hear the smirk in his voice.
“Shut up, Hiccup! I know you don’t like sailing either!” She said, finally moving to go below deck. Maybe if she could pretend that she wasn’t on an effing boat she could calm down.
“Yes, I don’t like sailing. But I don’t turn comatose when I’m on a boat. I knew this was a bad idea the minute you stepped onto the boat and immediately sat down. Your arms shot out so quickly, you would’ve grabbed onto anything.” Hiccup never let go of her hand as she made her way down the stairs, one step at a time. “But you insisted that you would be fine. I still don’t know why you wanted to go out on the boat with your fear of water being this bad.”
“I am not scared of the water!” Asterid said, gripping the railing as an unusually big wave hit them. “I just don’t like the… the-”
“Fine, fine. You’re not scared of the water,” Hiccup cut her off. “Just to let you know, I’m going to make sure that you never go on a boat ever again.” He said, laughing as she pulled him down and into the seat next to her. “By the way, why did you want to go on the boat?”
Astrid blushed, she knew that she had been too weird about this. She knew that as soon as Hiccup saw her on a boat, he would know she was terrified of water. She knew he would question her motives. And yet, she still didn’t have anything close to an excuse.
“I thought it would be a good change of pace…?” She said, cringing at her questioning tone. She looked at Hiccup, trying to gauge if she would need to elaborate. He just stared at her with his poker face. An expression he’d gotten surprisingly good at over the years.
“Astrid,” Hiccup started, “I’ve known you for years at this point. The Astrid I know could do the same thing every day for a decade and be happy. You’re a creature of habit, and that’s ok because so am I. And you know that. So, why did you demand we take the boat out today?”
“I-I thought… I wanted to… to get over my fear of the water.” She finished confidently.
Hiccup looked at her for a moment before changing the subject. Astrid smiled as their talk turned to work and strange stories. She knew that the reason she wanted to go sailing wasn’t really embarrassing or wrong at all, but she still thought it was a bit soon for it. They hadn’t talked about it at all, so while Astrid was pretty sure she wasn’t off base in her action, she wasn’t sure how to tell Hiccup. As their conversation slowed, Astrid’s mind wandered helplessly to wondering where the confident girl she’d been as a teenager had gone.
She lifted her head off his chest and found him looking at her. Her apprehension and his ease with her were proof enough that they’d rubbed off on each other enough to be considered an old married couple by all of their friends. And it was true, most of the time they were around each other with such ease it felt like they had been with each other their entire lives, and could spend the rest of their lives with each other. But in moments like this, when one of them contemplated the future and got skittish, their usual dance through life turned clumsy.
Astrid smiled at Hiccup and he returned the sentiment, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes.
5 YEARS LATER
“And that’s when I knew that you two kids were going to be together forever!” Stoic finished, “You looked so cute all cuddled up together, I still can’t believe you slept through that storm.”
“And I still can’t believe that we survived that storm,” Astrid said.
“Ah, that’s right. You’re scared of the water!” Gruber added, “that was just the cute cherry on top of the cute cake. For the first half of the trip, you just stood up top, frozen in fear and watching the sea as it would turn into a lizard!”
“I’ll admit I was acting as if I was scared of the water, but I assure you, I am not!” Astrid proclaimed, drunk on the high of the night, and the beer.
“Sure you aren’t.” Hiccup said, carrying some glasses of water to the table. He blushed as Astrid smiled at him.
“Look at them, on their way to getting married and they still act like their teenagers in love for the first time!” Gober exclaimed, greedily grabbing a glass. However, he failed to look into it and was surprised when he felt water on his tongue and not beer.
“I don’t care what you say, Astrid!” Stoic said, “You’re never going on my boat again! I won’t allow it!” They all burst out laughing, at and with Stoic. However, his absurdly dramatic statement made Hiccup realize something,
“Wait a minute! You only wanted to go on the boat to prove that you could. You-you wanted to impress my dad?” Hiccup looked to his fiancee. Astrid blushed, “Maybe!” She sang out, and the night dissolved into laughter and teasing. A true family.