Growing Pains

Chapter Four: The Gift

Astrid always loved the dim light shining through the windows on summer mornings. The warm air wafting through the room meant that she didn't have to light any candles to see what she was doing or to warm up the house before breakfast. There seemed to be infinite reasons to love summer, not least of which was the fact that today happened to be very special.

The Haddock matriarch resisted the urge to fling the covers from her body and leap out of bed with gusto. Her husband, who was still asleep, wasn't the sort of person who appreciated this behavior regardless of the season or the particular day. She had learned this the hard way on the first morning of their marriage. The first of many difficult lessons she would learn in the next nearly sixteen years.

But today wasn't the day to think about difficult lessons. They could do that any time. Today was the day to celebrate the best and worst day of her life, of Hiccup's life. The day everything had flipped upside down for the young couple, the day their horizons expanded and their lives became much richer than either of them could imagine.

In other words, it was Finn and Adrianna's birthday.

Astrid couldn't believe it had already been 15 years since had received the shocking news that the baby she'd been preparing for since the beginning of her marriage was actually two babies. 15 years since she had first held her son and watched Hiccup desperately and successfully revive her daughter. In her entire life, she had never again felt the rush of love she'd had when everything had calmed down and she was finally holding the babies she had carried since just after she had gotten married.

And now those babies had gained over a hundred pounds each, had learned to walk and talk, had outgrown the need for diapers (thank Thor), had gotten their own dragons, and had experienced some of life's greatest joys and its most crushing tragedies. But that was all part of growing up, something both Finn and Adrianna did way too fast for comfort.

Knowing that Finn would be more open to waking up at dawn, Astrid tapped on his bedroom door before entering. Her son was sprawled on the bed, his soft snoring quite audible in the silence. Astrid smiled at the memory of Stoick making some of the same grunting snores when he would spend the night after a particularly rough day watching the twins. How very like his grandfather her Finn was becoming.

"Morning." she said softly, kneeling next to her son as his eyes fluttered open. "Happy birthday."

"Mmmmf." Finn groaned before a large yawn. "Morning, mom."

Astrid kissed his forehead. "Anything in particular you want for breakfast?"

"Not really." Finn replied as he sat up and stretched. "Your cooking is always delicious."

"Laying on the sugar a bit early today, aren't you?" Astrid grinned as her son rolled his eyes.

"Nah, I'm just a lucky guy to have a mom and beautiful and talented as you are." Finn said quite seriously.

"All right," Astrid sat down in a nearby chair and crossed her arms, "what do you want to ask me?"

"Ask you?" Finn got out of bed and ran his fingers through his matted, messy red locks. "Do I need a reason to compliment my own mother?"

"Finn..."

"All right," Finn laughed and held up his arms in mock surrender, "I guess there is one thing..."

"Yes?"

"Can I come a bit late to the party?" Finn asked quickly as if he'd been bursting to say this since he'd awakened. "A few of the guys and I are racing our dragons and that always takes a few hours once we get going."