"Ah, ah, ah, put the sword down, boy!" Gobber chided from the other side of the forge.

"How'd you know I was holding it if you didn't turn around?" Finn asked with a scowl as he reluctantly obeyed.

"You're talking to the man who spent most days with your father when he was a little older than you. I see everything that goes on in here." Gobber replied, still not looking up from his task. "Mind you, he was less likely playing with the sword and more likely trying to turn it into something."

Adrianna grinned at the sight of her brother being scolded. She certainly had more common sense than that. Instead she started sorting through baskets of equipment under the workbench, looking for something to play with. Their parents had gone with the other grown-ups to search for a fishing boat that had not returned after the latest storm. With the freeze about to set in, they needed every fish and able bodied man available. Except for one. Gobber had been given babysitting duty. Again.

Admittedly, he wasn't the worst babysitter, in fact he was great with kids, however he always felt a little overwhelmed when it came to watching the twins, though he wasn't certain if that was to do with the stress of nowadays or the traumatizing flashbacks of babysitting gone by. He was just going over to the other end of the forge to pry a mace out of his almost-great-nephew's fingers when the girl uncovered a suspicious, bright pink bonnet.

"Umm... Uncle Gobber... why do you have a girl's hat in your toolbox?" she asked, holding it up and inspecting it. "It has flowers in it."

Gobber crossed the room with amazing speed for a man of his age and snatched the offending article form her hands. "Now, you don't need to go looking at that."

"Oh." Adrianna's face fell. "Shouldn't you throw it away, then?"

"NO!" he exclaimed a little too quickly, holding the bonnet several feet over her outstretched arms.

"Is there something you need to tell us?" Finn said, acting a little too old for his age with his hands on his hips in a way that was strongly reminiscent of Astrid.

"No, I... you really don't remember this, do you?" Gobber asked, sounding, quite possibly, a little bit hurt.

Adrianna raised an eyebrow. "Should I?"

"Yes, considering I wore it every time I used to babysit you." Gobber replied with amazing nonchalance.

"Umm... why?" Finn asked, finally distracted from the dangerous weapons in the corner, albeit not in the way Gobber would have wanted.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to distract them from further mischief, Gobber gestured to a pair of stools by the door. Finn, still giving his almost-great-uncle a suspicious glance, slowly sat down on one while his sister hastened to the other, excited to hear another Uncle Gobber story.

"It was actually a lot like today. Your parents had to rush out because several Outcast ships had been spotted near our beaches. Your Poppy did what he always had done when your father was little. Dumped the kids on me." Adrianna's face fell. "Not that I minded, of course. I loved every second of it. Well... almost every second..."

Xxx

"Now they're not allowed to play with sharp objects." Astrid said, handing a wiggling Finn to Gobber.

"Yes, I could have figured that much out myself." Gobber deadpanned, having a lot more trouble than he expected keeping the young boy in his arms.

"Well we wanted to make sure." Hiccup said. "Oh and they need to be tucked into bed by eight. Addie might fuss a bit but trust me, she'll fall asleep. Eventually."

"Do you really think you'll be gone that long?" Gobber asked incredulously.

"We aren't sure." Astrid dismissed his concern. "And by the way, they will tell you they are hungry right at bedtime. You can give them a little milk but don't let them have any solid food. Anna will be up all night and trying to tuck Finn into bed will become next to impossible."

"Got it." Gobber nodded. "You'd better go before those Outcasts get here."

"Right. Keep them safe. Don't let them go outside." Hiccup reminded his mentor. "You'll never find them. Remember last time?"

"Vividly. Trust me, I learned my lesson. Go." Gobber commanded, pointing a rather sharp looking hook at the door.

"Yeah. Umm, you might want to change hands. You're going to poke someone's eyes out." Hiccup said, eyeing the offending hook suspiciously.

"Not to worry! I have my special hammerhead yak attachment!" Gobber explained gleefully, grabbing a stuffed yak out of his bag.

"Okay. We'll just go now." Astrid raised an eyebrow at the attachment but decided not to comment. "Kids, be good for Gobber, okay?"

The two three-year-olds nodded quickly, and then dispersed to separate areas of the house to continue playing with what they had been playing with before their new guardian had arrived. In Adrianna's case, it was a soft doll with restitched legs; in Finn's case it appeared to be a pile of dirt that he was molding from one unremarkable blob to another. Gobber glanced from one quiet child to the other and smiled in a rather self-satisfied way. This was looking like a terribly easy way to spend an afternoon. He settled down on the couch and began flipping through the old, ratty Book of Dragons which Hiccup was constantly revising. The pages seemed so much more worn out since he had read it as a lad, and most of Hiccup's updated information was squeezed alongside the outdated pieces. He secretly wished he could tell Hiccup that if he left this book in the Great Hall, where it was meant to be stored, a little more often, then he would soon have the new copy which Stoick was working so meticulously on recreating for him as a gift.

Just as Gobber was getting to the pages on the Snap Trapper (which he still considered to be a rather dangerous beastie), he felt a tug on his hammerhead yak. Adrianna was standing before him, innocently eyeing his replacement limbs.

"Where did your hand go?" she asked.

Deciding that dismemberment was probably not the most suitable discussion topic with a three year old, Gobber replied "it fell off."

"How?"

"Well, it was an odd thing that. One day I woke up, and I just didn't have a hand anymore."

"What about your leg?" She continued unabashedly.

"Well, it felt awfully lonely without me hand, so it decided to go after it and try and convince it to come back. Then it didn't." Gobber explained.

Adrianna's mouth opened with a little "oooooh." She seemed to consider this for a moment. "Did daddy's leg fall off?"

Gobber nodded enthusiastically. "It just happens sometimes."

This was the wrong thing to say. Adrianna's eyes suddenly filled with fear. "Is my leg going to fall off too?"

"Eh?" Gobber felt like this was beginning to backfire. "No, of course not."

"But you said they fall off. Is my leg going to go where daddy's leg is?" Tears were now welling up to accompany the fear. "I don't want my leg to leave me! Don't let my leg leave me!"

"It's not going to leave you!" Gobber tried to reassure her between hiccups. "They don't just get up and leave, they have to... um..." He decided to change the subject. "Why, look at this! A hammerhead yak! Have I ever told you about the time I met a hammerhead yak?"

The trick did not manage to redirect the sobbing girl's attention. Gobber thought that expanding his audience a little might help to soothe her nerves. He turned to invite her twin to join her for the story only to realize that he was no longer in the corner now covered with mud balls. In fact, he was not in sight at all. He stood abruptly and searched the house desperately with his eyes, finally catching sight of the child teetering precariously on a makeshift set of steps made of books and buckets, reaching out to grab hold of a half-sharpened axe which had been abandoned on the table. Gobber lunged for the little boy, catching his hand just before it managed to close around the shaft of the weapon.

"Oh no you don't laddie." He hauled the boy off of the bucket and dropped him back on solid ground. "Now, I have a wonderful idea! Let's all play together for a little while. What do you want to play?"

"Wawior tackle!" Finn's arms wrapped firmly around both of Gobber's legs. "I've taught you!"

Deciding to play along, Gobber 'fell' to the ground, allowing the little boy to jump onto his chest to pin him to the floor. "Ack! I've been taken down! What are you going to do to me?"

"I'm going to... tickle you!" Finn did his best at tickling Gobber, though his lack of subtlety did nothing to actually irritate the older Viking's nervous system, and felt rather more like a muddy massage. Gobber pretended that the whole affair was torturous, and was happy when Adrianna decided to join in, poking him in the arm with a nervous giggle. The children entertained themselves with this pastime for a little while before tiring of it and deciding to change games.

"Let's play famiwy!" Adrianna said enthusiastically.

"Can I be the wawior?" Finn asked, grabbing a small wooden sword from the floor by the couch.

"I'll be da mommy." Adrianna agreed. Gobber nodded. This sounded like it would keep them occupied. Adrianna had begun to dig her own props out from various corners of the room, returning every once in a while with a spare doll (or baby, as she called them), until she finally returned with a pink bonnet.

"I fwound it." She announced happily. "Dis is for you, Unca Dobbew!"

"For me?" He asked incredulously.

"You'll be da Gwandma." Since Gobber was still sitting on the floor from the tickling game, she decided to help him into the bonnet by pulled it onto his head over his helmet. "Hmm," she backed up a little as she looked at it. "It doesn't look wight yet."

"Well, perhaps because I'm not a Grandma." Gobber offered hopefully. Adrianna shook her head and looked around the room, her eyes settling on the flowerpots in the window. "Unca Dobbew, can I have the fwowers?"

Gobber did not see any harm in letting her have a few of the many blooms pouring out of the containers, so he stood up and collected a handful of the flowers for her.

"Sit down." She directed. Gobber frowned a little, but did as he was told. The little girl went about tucking the flowers into the rim of the hat with great precision. "This is Grandma Dobbew's special hat that she got from the dwagon fairy. When she wears it she can fwy."

"I can fly now, can I?" Gobber said. "You know, Anna, I don't know what kind of games your father plays with you, but I really don't fit the role of a grandma."

Adrianna stuck her lower lip out in a pout, which fortunately for her Gobber misunderstood as the second coming of tears. He quickly reassessed his opinion of being the grandmother in Adrianna's family and announced his revised decision. Adrianna was thrilled.

"Now we hafta wock the baby!" Adrianna squealed in excitement. "And sing hew to sweep!"

Gobber wasn't so sure this was a good idea but he was even more sure that he didn't want his almost-grand-niece crying again. And so he reluctantly accepted the baby and began rocking it.

"You hafta sing!" Adrianna reminded him, crossing her arms.

"Oh. Of course. Umm... I've got me axe and I've got me mace and I love me wife her..."

"Not dat song! A wuwwaby!" Adrianna giggled.

"I'm a Viking. We don't sing lullabies" Gobber said, beginning to feel slightly awkward.

"Daddy sings dem." the girl said, sounding like she was explaining this to someone half her age.

"Yes well that's your father. He does all kinds of things Vikings don't do." Gobber rolled his eyes.

"So does Poppy. And Antie Wuffnut!" Adrianna cupped her hand near her mouth and whispered into Gobber's ear. "Her wuwwabies are scawy."

"Yes I'm sure they are." Gobber took a deep breath and faced the "baby" in his arms. "The dragon fairy wanted to climb a mountain tall..."

A loud hacking noise interrupted Gobber's off key and improvised lullaby. Finn was on his knees, half a plum still grasped tightly in his juice covered hands. Gobber immediately sprang to his leg and hobbled over to the choking child. Admittedly he had never dislodged anything from anyone's throat but now seemed like a good enough time to learn. After smacking Finn on the back a few times, he decided that this was not an effective method of extricating the foreign object from the boy's throat. He grabbed Finn around the middle and heaved upward. The plum's pit came flying out of Finn's throat and he began to gasp loudly. Satisfied that he would not have to explain to the boy's parents how a pitted fruit had sent their son to Valhalla, he turned to the daughter, who was now sobbing loudly.

"It's okay, Anna, it's okay. He's just fine." Gobber clapped her brother on the back and he fell forward. Ignoring the male child, who was now sprawled out on the ground but otherwise okay, he focused his attention to the female. "Everything is going to be fine." He bent down to grab the baby doll from the ground when both he and the girl were dismayed to hear a loud ripping noise.

The doll's arm and leg, as Gobber had so eloquently put it, fell off. Adrianna stared in silence at the now dismembered doll, her eyes wide with shock. This gave Gobber a few precious seconds to come up with a way to keep the child from shedding even more tears.

"Ahh look, the doll wants to be just like me!"

The loud hiccup emanating from the girl informed Gobber that this explanation had been ineffective mere seconds before the wails.

"You bwoke it!" she sobbed, tears splashing onto her shirt.

"Arr, it's easily fixable!" Gobber's eyes frantically searched the room for something with which to use to fix the doll. He spotted a piece of wood and a carving knife that were left over from the last time Hiccup had carved toys for the children. He immediately snatched them up and returned to the crying child. "Now take a look! This here can be the doll's new arm!" he shoved the wood into the socket. "And a new leg!" he shoved the knife into the place the leg had been.

Adrianna suddenly grinned through her tears. "It's just like daddy and you!" she squealed in excitement.

"Exactly!" Gobber returned the doll to the girl. "That was the plan."

"He's Dobcup!" she exclaimed.

"Dobcup?" Gobber asked incredulously. "Right. Okay. That works." he said. "Long as you stop crying for a minute." he muttered to himself.

While Gobber was distracted with the doll repair, Finn had decided that his mother's axe was a fun toy with which to play. He decided that he could throw it just as well as his mother and aimed it at the far wall (figuring that he wanted Gobber and Adrianna to remain alive and unharmed by the fierce looking weapon). He immediately threw it and... missed. The hilt and blade snapped apart and flew in different directions, the hilt hitting the wall and the blade colliding with the metal flowerpot, which was still on the floor after its flowers were harvested for Gobber's costume. His eyes widened in horror as he realized he had only seconds to act. The blade was more likely to get him in trouble so he quickly stuffed it into the flowerpot and turned to look at his almost-great-uncle.

Gobber was staring at him. "What have you been up to?"

"Just yooking at the fwowers." Finn said far too quickly.

Gobber had the distinct feeling that something was up. He eyed the boy suspiciously but could find no evidence of mischief.

"Well, come on over, then," Gobber said, gesturing to the yak-skin rug where Adrianna was now enthusiastically setting up their game of house. "Be the strong warrior for your sister, now."

The family game was possibly the best distraction that the children could have come up with, as it kept them occupied for a surprisingly long time. During the time that they played the sun officially set, Gobber managed to make some halfway decent fish for dinner (as Grandma, of course), babies were 'born' to Adrianna, Finn went to war three times (and won), and Grandma died, only to be brought back to life by a magical cake Adrianna had received from "the dragon fairy." Gobber was currently planning his next major disease, in hopes of lying down for a bit while Adrianna made 'soup' out of water and cabbages. Finn, meanwhile, had begun to get bored with the pastime, and was beginning to wander towards the front door.

"Oh no you don't, laddie!" Gobber yelled, catching the child's attention.

"When wiw mommy and daddy come home?" Finn asked, looking at the stars through the window, probably searching for the familiar shapes of Toothless and Stormfly.

"They will get back when the village is safe." Gobber replied.

"The viwage isn't safe?!" Adrianna's voice was filled with terror. Gobber was severely regretting that he had woken up at that morning.

"Aaah..." Gobber's voice trembled slightly as he considered the corner he was in. "No, of course the village is safe. There's no danger at all."

"But you said it wasn't!" Adrianna shouted.

"Then why haven't mommy and daddy come home?"

The fact that his stories had holes large enough for children younger than his boot to figure out was beginning to irk Gobber. He was not quite certain which child needed more attention right now—Adrianna, in the beginning of tears, or Finn, who was apprehensive.

"The village is safe, your mother and father just making sure that everything is clear around the village because that is their job." He said rapidly. "And they will be home as soon as they finish."

As suddenly as her tears had begun, Adrianna was suddenly overwhelmed by another feeling. "Unca Dobbew! Unca Dobbew!"

Gobber spun to fully face her on his peg leg. "Yes?"

"Outhouse! Outhouse!" She was dancing slightly and looking rather desperate. "Can you take me?"

Gobber felt a sense of urgency sweep over him. He grabbed Adrianna around the waist and began rapidly carrying her to the back of the house, putting her down to open the back door. She scampered through and ran to the outhouse, quickly followed by Gobber.

Finn, now left alone, noticed a darting flame outside the window by the bridge. Thinking it could possibly be his parents, he took the opportunity (checking over his shoulder as he snuck out) to go and greet them. He slid through the door and scampered across the lawn to the bridge, but was disappointed to see that the flames had not been the sparks of a landing dragon—they were, in fact, very small dragons. Fireworms, to be exact. Fireworms which, naturally, needed to be investigated. He stooped down and reached a tentative finger out to touch one, but it spotted him and darted across the grass to escape, quickly followed by its peers. Finn chose to track them through the grass (like a mighty dragon hunter) in hopes of "playing" with his new friends. The tiny dragons paused every few moments to cast a look a look at him, but made a beeline for a mound of rocks on the hillside (which were often utilized by Toothless and Stormfly for sunbathing).

Inside, Gobber had just realized that he was short one Haddock. He was not thrilled. He searched the house, hoping beyond hope that the little boy was hiding under the table or in a hole behind furniture waiting to pop out and scare him, but the child was not to be found. He even poked his head into the master bedroom—no luck. His stomach flip-flopped uncomfortably.

"Adrianna," Gobber said seriously, "I need you to sit down on the yak rug and play with Dobcup for a bit. Don't move. Don't follow me. Don't touch anything but your dolls, okay?"

Adrianna nodded, hesitantly and with a little surprise at her playmate's firmness. She had never seen Gobber like this before.

Gobber left the little girl on the rug (but left the door open, since he could not trust a three year old to sit still for an unspecified amount of time and needed to see if she decided to wander out as well), and went hunting for the boy.

"FINN!" No response. "FEARLESS FINN HADDOCK, COME HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Finn heard his name being called, and glanced over his shoulder where he could see Gobber running about with all the speed he could muster. Finn looked back at his goal. He was... so... close...

The fireworms had crawled between the rocks and were lighting their cave brightly with their glow. He was doing his best to climb into the hole without scraping his bare knees on the rocks or falling into the dragons beneath him, but there was only so much he could do. He was sure if he could reach out and touch their little noses that they would be thrilled to be his...

He closed his eyes. His hand stretched out. He could feel the heat. He had seen his dad do this to Toothless when helping new recruits train their dragons. He knew it would work...

"GOTCHA!" Gobber grabbed the little boy by the ankle and hoisted him from the hole, accidentally scraping Finn's knee as he went. Finn howled loudly—loudly enough to startle and in turn upset his sister in the house—but Gobber was, at that moment, more focused with what the child had been doing.

"I realize you aren't happy with me," he said, pinning the boy against his side, still upside down and furious, "but you'll thank me later. It is much preferable to have a banged up knee, or even no knee at all, than to be burned to a fiery death by angry fireworms. Or have them burn your skin off, which is the least of what would have happened."

Finn was busy pounding his fists against Gobber's prosthetic leg, which, naturally, had no effect whatsoever on Gobber. He was marched into the house and deposited, face first, onto the yak skin rug beside his now screaming sister.

"I guess blood doesn't agree with you." Gobber said calmly, getting something to clean the wound. As he dug around for a bandage in the first aid, he spotted some cottony wool which he pulled apart and plugged into his ears to dull the noise. Between the chorus of screaming twins, Gobber felt he had earned this right.

Finally, the knee was cleaned, the sobbing stymied, and Gobber's nerves had been strengthened by a sip of fine ale he had found in a jug in the medical cabinet behind the dried herbs. The twins had taken an abrupt nap on the rug, Gobcup between them. Gobber had returned to reading The Book of Dragons on the couch, and didn't even notice when the door swung open.

"What. A. Raid." Astrid said. Gobber looked up at her and smiled.

"Back so soon?"

"Fifteen Outcast ships. FIFTEEN." Hiccup joined Gobber on the couch. Both he and his wife appeared to be completely exhausted.

"We had to chase them off on dragon back while fighting off changewing guards in the air, and avoiding bolas."

"We are lucky to have gotten back so early." Hiccup continued.

"We are lucky to have gotten back at all." Astrid countered.

"Sorry, what was that?" Gobber pulled the cotton out of his ears.

Hiccup opened his mouth to reply, but turned to look at Gobber just as the now yellowish fuzz came out of his ears. "Gross... Gobber, why do you have cotton in your ears?"

"The children were singing. For three hours. About bottles of yak's milk on the wall." Gobber replied. Hiccup and Astrid were too tired to note the sarcasm in his voice.

"Oh, that makes sense." Hiccup rubbed his face to try and waken himself a little more, but as he did managed to glance down at his offspring.

"Gobber..."

"Hmm?" Gobber was getting ready to leave. Hiccup looked up at him and did a quick double-take.

"Why are you wearing Astrid's gardening bonnet?"

"Oh, this... That was your daughter's work."

"Good. I was hoping it wasn't our son's. But about him, why is his leg all wrapped up?"

"Ah, yes, well..."

Astrid got a little closer to inspect Finn, and at that moment noticed Gobcup. She pulled the doll out of Adrianna's limp hands quickly—though not fast enough not to stir the child.

"Gobber, what is this?"

"It's a doll." Gobber replied.

"It has a knife sticking out of it!" Hiccup felt a little panicky all of the sudden. In some ways, envisioning his tiny daughter playing with a sharp object imbedded in her favorite toy was more terrifying than fifteen Outcast ships with bolas and a changewing guard.

"Technically, the knife is sticking into it," Gobber said slowly, "since the blade is inside."

"Well, that just makes me feel so much better." Hiccup deadpanned.

"And look at its stunning new arm!" Gobber gestured grandiosely towards the doll.

Adrianna tugged on her mother's skirt gently. "Can I have Mr. Dobcup back?" she asked.

Astrid blinked at this. "Mr. Gobcup?"

"Great, the doll isn't just now missing two limbs and carrying a lethal weapon, it is also going through a gender change." Hiccup collapsed back onto the couch and buried his face in his hands.

"See, mommy, he has a hand wike Unca Dobbew and a foot wike Mr. Daddy."

"Mr. Daddy?"

"I don't think you need to be so formal with me, Addie, I've known you since you were born after all."

Adrianna glanced at her father, slightly confused by this statement, and then reached for her doll again. Astrid made sure to hold it out of her reach.

"I think we need to get some proper limbs on him first, Anna." She tried to soothe her daughter. "Then you can have... Mr. Dobcup... back. Maybe we'll even get him some new clothes. If it's a boy now, he probably shouldn't be wearing a dress."

"That's his nightie!" Adrianna insisted. "He's just gotten up fwom bed!"

"Ah, well, your father still needs to put a proper leg onto it, okay?" She handed the doll over to her husband and stooped to scoop the little girl into her arms. "It's time for you to go to bed, anyway, young shield maiden."

Adrianna, still fuzzy from her nap, struggled remarkably little as her mother carried her up towards bed (though she did have her mother make a detour to her father for a goodnight kiss before she was stolen away), a fact which Astrid and Hiccup both were willing to celebrate. By the time Astrid came down to collect Finn and continue her interrogation of Gobber, Gobber had already slipped out, leaving all his embarrassing incidents from the evening behind him. Or, at least leaving behind a lecture.

Well, almost all of his embarrassing incidents.

Gobber managed to get almost back to his home before loud snickering caught his attention. He glanced over and spotted the twins perched on a couple of barrels outside of the Great Hall.

"Nice hat," Ruffnut said. "I didn't know you were so into pink."

"Maybe he's letting out his feminine side. Wish you'd do that." Tuffnut continued.

Gobber would have threatened them, but fortunately Ruffnut seemed to think that punishing Tuffnut was her jurisdiction, and since that last comment merited a spirited assault. The noise drew out the neighbors, which drew more sniggering at his bonnet, but he managed to get back into his home (after removing the cursed thing) with only a few interjected commentaries and the explanation of "babysitting." He would never hear the end of this.

Xxx

"And I never have. People still mention it to me."

Adrianna was giggling with barely muffled hiccups. Finn still seemed confused.

"So why haven't you thrown it away?" He asked.

Gobber shook his head slowly. "Well, I always figure that I might need it again someday, if I have to watch other little girls." This was a lie. He really was just a sentimental fool at heart, but he'd rather die than admit it.

"Well. I see you've dug that thing out again." Hiccup commented through the open window of the forge.

"Daddy!" Adrianna vaulted up from the floor and hurdled towards him. He smiled and stepped into the door to catch her in his arms as she reached him, stumbling back slightly from the impact.

"Woah, slow down a bit Addie." He laughed. He started to unstrap the outer leather armor which he wore over his flight suit.

"Thanks for watching them at such short notice, Gobber." Astrid said as she came up behind her husband, who was now pulling a mangled warrior out from under one of his flight suit cross-buckles. It had spent the journey pinned down to his heart.

"Thanks for the good luck charm, Addie." He handed the doll back to her. A wooden hook, just like Gobber's, and a wooden leg, just like Hiccup's, could be made out from under its leather armor, a gift from Hiccup a few years before for Adrianna's birthday.

"I'm glad it worked," she replied. "Hey, dad... Whatever happened to the nightie Mr. Gobcup used to wear?"

Hiccup scratched his head awkwardly. "Well, I think I lost it when I was putting the new stuff on. Sorry."

"Uncle Gobber was telling us the story about how Mr. Gobcup became Mr. Gobcup, and when he played Grandma in our family game while babysitting us, and Finn nearly petted a fireworm—"

"A fireworm? Wait, when did Finn nearly pet a fireworm?" Hiccup searched his memory for this event. He knew that the other two had happened at the same time, so...

"Well, don't worry about that," Gobber said quickly. "It was so long ago, and there was no harm done."

"No harm? I think I have a scar on my knee." Finn began searching his skin for a minute scar.

"I think the scar is actually from a different time," Astrid remarked.

"What other time?" Finn asked.

"The first time Gobber babysat."

"So it was his fault." Finn pulled his pants leg down and stood up to join his family at the door.

Gobber laughed, "I think it was mostly your fault. You were definitely asking for it."

"Wait, what happened?" Adrianna asked. Hiccup laughed and tugged the end of her hair playfully.

"I think that's about it for today. You can ask Uncle Gobber for that story later. We need to get home; there's another storm coming in. Thankfully, everyone's on the island now."

The twins said their goodbyes and accompanied their parents from the workshop, badgering them with questions about their day. Gobber smiled at their retreating figures and began to put back the items strewn on the floor. He folded the pink bonnet and slowly buried it back in one of the baskets, hidden beneath the old Book of Dragons and a collection of other old sentimental heirlooms he couldn't bring himself to throw out. There were a lot of stories hidden in this particular basket—of the twins, of their father, and even of their grandfather. Maybe someday he would have time to tell them all.