This was originally a standalone, but it has been bugging me for reasons I'm not entirely sure of lately being on its own.

So I moved it.

-HTTYD-

"I'm not happy about this."

"Come on babe. Nobody is even going to be looking at you."

Hiccup frowned, keeping his back to the wall which masked the worst of his scar as it covered more of his calf than his shin. He felt self conscious about everything, from his scrawny chest and skinny legs to the scar marring his skin. Astrid looked like a model for a sportswear campaign in her red swimming costume, standing patiently as they allowed several people to walk past.

The smell of chlorine was heavy on the air, children playing and people splashing about. It might as well have been a volcanic wasteland in Hell itself for how little Hiccup wanted to keep going. Astrid getting him into the swim trunks had taken nearly two months of begging - she loved to swim. He felt guilty holding her back from something she loved, eventually giving in but right now he wanted to run.

"I can't swim."

"It's ok, neither could Heather. She was scared of deep water because Dagur used to get a little too rough in the pool as kids. I got her swimming, now your turn."

She held out her hand, giving Hiccup her best pleading eyes until he took it. She led him along to the shallow end, feeling like every eye in there was on him.

"Excuse me mister?"

A small voice to his left made Hiccup turn and look down, finding a little girl of about seven peering at his scar.

"Yes?"

"What happened to your leg?"

He felt a little sick, but Hiccup couldn't ignore a curious child.

"I had an accident when I was a little boy."

"Oh. My daddy came back from a faraway place without one of his legs, but that's ok. He's still my daddy."

The child was called back by her mother, and Hiccup found himself looking down at his legs in surprise. The girl had raised an interesting point for him - it could have been worse. He had both his legs, and he hadn't lost much function.

"Babe, you ok?"

Astrid squeezed his hand, jolting Hiccup from his reverie.

"Yeah. Let's do this before I change my mind."

They sat on the edge, feet in the lukewarm water. Astrid slid down first, then bobbed about next to him looking encouraging. He was ashamed to note that as she rose up, he could see her swimming costume was a little more moulded to her chest now it was wet. He needed to get in the water before he started tenting in his trunks.

The water came barely up to his waist at first, and Astrid showed him how to hold the side and bounce with his toes to feel weightless and floaty. It was quite fun really.

"I'm proud of you. I didn't think you would go through with it first time."

That bolstered him - Astrid was proud of him. Looking around, he saw nobody really paying attention to them. His leg wasn't really visible under the water, and there were all body types around them, young and old, big and small and thin and muscular.

Then there was the goddess next to him. Astrid was beaming at him, somehow looking utterly perfect under harsh artificial lights and surrounded by noisy children. Her hair was resting in a braid on her left shoulder, big blue eyes on him like he was king of the gods for putting on some black trunks and getting in a swimming pool.

Odin's ghost, he was so lucky to have her.

"Ok, now what?"

"Now you try and swim. Watch me."

Astrid kicked off from the side and it was no hardship to watch her lithe body cut through the water. Graceful legs kicking out behind her and arms pulling her forward, she made short work of a length to the other end and back. Her face was wet and hair sodden, but she was still grinning.

"It's ok if you don't do it first time, it's ok if you're slow or mess it up. I'm just so proud of you for trying."

Astrid constantly reassured him, holding under his stomach to check he could kick out his legs properly with his scar. The pool looked impossibly long, but she smiled and turned him sideways.

"Do a width. Just to there. I'm right with you, and nobody is looking."

With his six foot plus in height, the width of the pool was barely more than three of him. Easy, surely?

Not quite.

Astrid stayed by him, but that only added to his mortification as he splashed about in an ungainly, disgraceful manner. He felt utterly ridiculous, expecting loads of people to be laughing at him as he finally reached the other end. Clutching the side, he coughed out a little water and tried to wring out his hair a little.

"You did great babe."

"That was dreadful!"

Peering around, he was shocked to see hardly anyone even looking at them, and most who were were looking at Astrid. She was perfect, so he couldn't blame them.

"Don't compare yourself to anyone. When you're a kid there are instructors and floats and everyone is your level. It takes guts to come learn as an adult. And you made it across."

Bobbing in the water to recover from his shame, Hiccup realised that almost everyone in the pool with them were families. Over the walkway, he could see a much bigger pool full of many more adults. Astrid knew what she was doing, knowing nobody near them cared so long as they weren't causing trouble.

"I feel stupid not knowing how to do this."

"Like I said, Heather couldn't swim a year ago. It took her a good three months to be comfortable coming swimming without me."

"Really?"

"Babe, I'm not expecting you to become an Olympic athlete. But I really like swimming, and I want to share that with you. And I reckoned that swimming wouldn't be rough on your leg."

Now he thought about it, the way water supported his weight meant Hiccup's leg hadn't hurt except for when he kicked too hard, which he wasn't meant to do anyway.

"Huh. Guess I can give it another shot."

"Good man. I'll go wait over there for you. Make it and you get a kiss."

There wasn't really a better motivator than Astrid, bouncing in the water across the pool and just waiting for him. Taking a deep breath, he waited for a small boy in floaty armbands to splash his way past before kicking off from the side and practically dragging himself through the water, never more relieved to see a wall of tiles in his life.

"You did it!"

"I did."

He looked at her hopefully, feeling a thousand times better when Astrid bobbed up and kissed his lips softly.

"Worth it."

A few shamefully slow, awkward splashes to and from the sides later, Astrid continued to reward him with kisses each side. Starting to get the hang of not drowning if nothing else, Hiccup took a minute to appreciate Astrid's beauty again.

"Feel like you could do a length now? Just one?"

"What's in it for me?"

Astrid smirked, tongue peeking out between her sweet lips.

"How about later I show you how well I can hold my breath?"

Maybe swimming had its perks after all.

It seemed bizarre to think now, Hiccup mused, that it took him until he was twenty four to learn to swim.

Now, splashing around a hotel pool with Astrid and their kids, Hiccup loved it. Couldn't imagine not splashing about with Hayden and Alex, watching Astrid lift their son on her shoulders as he did the same with their daughter, tossing beach balls and doing his best imitation of a dolphin to Alex's delight.

They weren't really holiday goers - Hiccup and Astrid loved their lives, felt no desire to get away from it but his mother truly loved travelling, and so she joined the four of them on a trip to her favourite places once a year. Now six, Hayden and Alex had seen France, Italy and Norway. Italy had been a big hit with Hayden, who loved anything that involved food. They hadn't been able to convince the boy to eat anything but pizza and pasta for about four days over there.

Valka - a natural swimmer - appeared near them, giggling when Alex dove at her in splashes of glee.

"Grandma!"

"Hello darling, having fun?"

"Yeah!"

Both their kids were water babies - Hiccup had refused to let them grow up with his issues, and they'd gone to baby swimming classes from six months old. They were both happy and healthy, bright and engaging children. Alex was boisterous, she loved climbing trees and tinkering with her bicycle, while Hayden loved food and animals and painting, frequently covering their fridge in his artwork.

They headed out over the next few days, seeing the fjords Valka had explored before Hiccup was born. She joined right in when the kids were building sandcastles on the beach, leaving Hiccup and Astrid to sit and smile happily at their family. Hiccup still often looked at Astrid in disbelief, remembering when she was just this unattainable beauty in his Mechanics class.

Now she was his wife, the mother of his children and Hiccup had never, ever felt happier or more at peace with his life than in that moment.

"When will the sky light up?"

"Yeah, grandma said the sky gets really pretty!"

They stayed in Norway for six nights; the twins (and the adults) were all on tenterhooks as they headed out in the dark evening, hoping for one glimpse of the Northern Lights before they went back home the next day. Mother Nature ran to her own schedule, meaning they could be disappointed.

Alex and Hayden fell asleep on the picnic blanket, both looking like absolute angels while the grown ups sat in comfortable silence, looking up at the sky that stayed resolutely dark. Then there were a few flickers of greenish glow to be seen, and then the sky was a miasma of vibrant colours.

"Hayden! Alex! Wake up!"

Alex grunted, Hayden wrinkled his nose cutely before they opened sleepy eyes, then leapt up and cheered as the sky painted itself with the waves of moving colours. There weren't words to truly describe the sight, one of those things that just filled one with pure joy at the miracles of the planet they inhabited.

"So pretty!"

"Look bro, purple!"

Hiccup watched the lights reflecting in his childrens eyes as they stared up, eyes like saucers and beaming grins as they spun in place trying to see it all at once. He watched his mother join them, flourishing at home in anything nature-based.

"Oh, I forgot how beautiful they were. Norway was the last place I visited before I married your father and had you. I'm so glad I got to see it again with you son."

His mother wrapped her arms around his shoulders, Astrid holding a child in each of her arms next to them as they all stared up at the sky. His chest swelled with happiness, watching a kaleidoscope of colours ripple across the sky. Others came out and joined them on the vantage point, people from all over the world with loved ones and friends, children and even pets as they looked at the sky.

Mikkel, a native Norwegian who's dog became Alex's best friend for half an hour, was fascinated to hear how they had come so far to see the lights.

"I never get tired of seeing 'em. It's like getting bored of the sunrise. You gotta appreciate things every day, or you don't appreciate them at all."

Looking around at his wife, his mother, his children, Hiccup felt like the words rang true.

Astrid was his sunrise.

-HTTYD-

Hooray for Northern Lights!