It is said that a girl's first love is her father. One look at the Haddock family was irrefutable proof of that statement's truth. There was a sort of beauty in Hiccup and Adrianna's relationship that was easily visible to everyone on Berk. People would stumble across them lying in fields and pointing out shapes in the clouds. They would often watch the pair in the Great Hall, the tall and skinny man sitting across from a tiny wisp of a girl, listening to every word she said with rapt attention. Hiccup would often carry his daughter all over the village and, when they weren't socializing with anyone, it was like they were in their own invisible bubble. Villagers loved seeing Hiccup's face light up when his little girl giggled, loved watching him tap her nose with the tip of his finger or gently brush her long hair out of her face.

Hiccup had wanted a little girl from the first moment he had found out that he and Astrid were expecting a baby. His dreams of parenthood were always focused on his relationship with his daughter. He loved Finn every bit as much as Adrianna but he had felt the tiniest twinge of disappointment when he had thought that his son was the only baby they had. But then Adrianna came into the world, feet first, blue in the face, and undeniably female. The little girl he had dreamed of having was in his arms... and he wasn't going to let her slip away from him. Though he never said it outright, he considered the moment she had breathed for the first time to be one of the most precious moments of his life. As much as Finn was Astrid's, Adrianna was his. Even her name was his own creation, a combination of syllables that came to him the moment he was looking into her eyes.

Over the years, Adrianna seemed to have decided that he was hers as well. He was the first person who had made her laugh. She had taken her first steps directly into his arms. Most children initially run to their mothers when they get hurt or are frightened. Adrianna had always made a beeline to her daddy when she needed someone. He was her rock, her hero, and she was his baby girl.

The fourth Saturday of every month was always special. Even if Hiccup and Adrianna only spent it walking around the village or telling stories on the couch, they were always memorable. Hiccup had thought long and hard about what he and Adrianna could do that day. Astrid generally planned activities for her rambunctious son but Adrianna didn't need much planning. She loved the little moments with her parents.

On the fourth Saturday in April, Hiccup vaguely heard Finn bounding into his room and felt Astrid rise from bed a moment later. He tried to say something about staying in bed a bit longer but he didn't think his wife would understand a single word. A few minutes later, he felt his daughter crawl into the bed and snuggle into him. He placed an arm over her and the two of them were asleep in seconds.

The sun was over the trees and shining directly into the window when father and daughter were finally awake. Rather than bolt out of bed like Astrid and Finn, they remained in bed a few minutes longer. Adrianna took a deep breath and exhaled through her nose, making a faint humming noise.

"What are you thinking about?" Hiccup asked her, smiling fondly as she rolled over so she could face him.

"What we're going to do today." Adrianna replied, stifling a yawn.

"What do you want to do, Addie?" Hiccup learned a long time ago that Adrianna would have no idea what she wanted to do until the moment he asked.

Adrianna put her chin in her hands and furrowed her eyebrows in deep thought. "Umm... cookies?"

"Cookies?" Hiccup chuckled. "What kind of cookies?"

"Mint chocolate!" Adrianna exclaimed, startling her daddy. "That's the best kind!"

Mint chocolate cookies were also the hardest to make but Hiccup and Adrianna loved making them. It was a lengthy process that allowed them to spend a lot of time together. They rolled out of bed and walked downstairs hand-in-hand, still in their pajamas. Unlike Astrid and Finn, they preferred to stay in their more comfortable clothes. Unless they needed to go to the village, they often stayed in their sleepwear all day.

Within seconds, the ingredients for the cookies were out on the table. Hiccup and Adrianna knew exactly how to make these cookies, having made them dozens of times before. Several fourth Saturdays were spent making them. In fact, the village often looked forward to them because they always made too many.

"All right, Addie, can you mix everything up like I showed you last time?" Hiccup asked her, handing her a wooden spoon.

It was remarkable how much his daughter remembered about baking her favorite kind of cookies. Especially since she had such a terrible memory concerning most other things. Hiccup watched her crack eggs, pour yak's milk, and add several kinds of powder. He supposed he wasn't really watching what she was doing as much as he was simply looking at her. She wasn't going to be this small forever and he wanted to remember exactly how she looked. The way her nose curved upward just like his and Astrid's did. Her long blonde hair's tendency to fall in front of her face. The oval shaped green eyes, exactly like his but thankfully more feminine with longer eyelashes. The little freckles dusting her face, quite faint even on the sunniest days but still visible. He loved her dainty little hands (definitely Astrid's genetics at work) and her melodic, girlish voice that hiccuped when she was emotional. Right now, she was sticking out her tongue in concentration, something he found absolutely adorable (and, though he didn't know it, he had taught her).

Soon, her wide green eyes were facing his. "Now I just gotta get out the mint leaves." she said with a tiny giggle.

"You sure do!" Hiccup pointed to the ugly metal flowerpots on the windowsill. His daughter excitedly bounded over to them to collect some of the mint leaves.

Toothless, who had been sunbathing next to one of the other windows, decided that this was a good time to attempt to stick his snout in the batter. Hiccup rolled his eyes and moved the bowl over so his dragon couldn't access it. The Night Fury made an annoyed gurgling noise and swished his tail irritably. There was a crash and a squeak.

Hiccup looked around, checking to see if everything was okay, and his heart plummeted. Adrianna had immediately run into the corner, pulling her knees up to her chest and burying her face into her arms. He had thought those days were almost over. Every time his little girl had a moment like this, he felt a whirlwind of emotions. Rage at what had happened to her and at himself for not being able to stop it. Sorrow that she was feeling this way to begin with. Fear that these days would never end. His heart twisting in his chest, he slowly walked over to her and got on his knees.

"Addie, it's me. It's your daddy." he said in a calm voice. Months of trial and error had taught him the best way to help his little girl but it didn't stop him from feeling frustrated that this was still happening. "You're at home. You're safe at home with me. Look at me, baby."

Adrianna didn't move. Hiccup sighed and gently placed his hands on her arms. She didn't flinch but then again, he wasn't altogether certain she could feel it. He had always wondered what these felt like to her. Whether she could see or hear what had happened to her over a year ago. What was it like to be forced to relive the most horrible moments of your life? He didn't know but the fact that his four-year-old daughter knew was infuriating.

"Addie, you're at home. You're at home with your daddy. No one is going to hurt you. Can you hear my voice?"

Still no response. No movement. Adrianna remained rigid, her breathing labored. Hiccup sighed deeply. Sometimes he could snap her out of these episodes. Other times he simply had to wait until they were over. The latter seemed to be true this time. Hiccup looked up at his dragon, who was watching the scene with concern, and made a silencing motion. A sudden noise would probably make things worse. He then turned back to his little girl.

"Addie, you're safe. Can you hear my voice?" he asked as softly as he could.

The child stirred slightly. Very slowly, she raised her head and looked at him, her green eyes wide with fear and several strands of hair falling over her face. Hiccup gently reached over and pushed her hair away from her eyes. She flinched and so he pulled his hands back but, a few seconds later, she seemed to be completely aware of her surroundings.

"Daddy?"

Hiccup sighed in relief. "I'm here, baby."

This was all she needed to hear. She immediately let go of her legs, sliding them onto the floor, and reached out her arms. Hiccup picked her up and held her tight. He could feel her shaking as she held onto him for dear life.

After a few seconds, she let go of his neck and shoulders. "All right, Addie, what did I promise you?"

Adrianna's lips curled upward in a tiny smile. "You're never gonna let anyone take me away."

"That's right." Hiccup tapped her nose. "And has anyone taken you away from me?"

Adrianna shook her head. Hiccup smiled and kissed her on the cheek. "You want to keep making cookies?"

"Uh huh." his daughter replied.

He lowered her to the ground and kept an eye on her as she picked a few mint leaves from within the iron flowerpot. He placed a hand on the top of Toothless' head, still watching his daughter.

"You've got to be careful with her, bud." he whispered. "I know you didn't mean it but please... I don't like seeing her like that."

He turned to look at his dragon, who made a quiet coo of understanding. He looked a little embarrassed but Hiccup patted him on the head and gave him a small smile. It had been an accident and he wasn't going to blame Toothless for what had happened. The blame fell on someone else entirely and she was long gone. It was Hiccup and Astrid's job to pick up the pieces.

"I got them, daddy!" Adrianna faced him and the smile was still on her lips but Hiccup knew that look. He hated that look. The dead eyes, the slack muscles... it was the look his daughter had when she wasn't happy but was pretending that she was.

He got down on his knees so he was looking directly into her blank eyes. "Addie, you know I'm going to keep those promises." he said in a gentle voice, tucking some of her hair behind her ear.

"I know." Adrianna bit her lower lip.

"Are you still scared, sweetie?"

There was a pause and then his daughter slowly nodded. Hiccup sighed. It could be hours before she was back to normal, even on the best of days. For a few months directly after her traumatic experience, she had gone through an intense biting phase, drawing blood on all three other Haddocks on multiple occasions and once on Erick (he had forgiven her but wore long sleeves to visit her for months afterward). But Hiccup and Astrid began to crack down on her for it and she finally stopped. The nightmares were rare but these little moments of intense fear were still happening and they didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

Hiccup hugged Adrianna close to him, trying to non-verbally express just how much he loved her and how far he was willing to go to protect her. Sometimes he feared that she wasn't happy at all, that she faked it to make them feel better. But then something would make her laugh until he had intense hiccups and he was reminded that it was simply a process and that they couldn't rush her. She had to heal in her own time.

But if there was one thing that helped her heal more than anything, it was time with her daddy. And cookie baking was even more helpful. Adrianna had quite a sweet tooth. Hiccup sometimes wondered if this was to blame for her short attention span but he was also beginning to suspect that she truly couldn't help it.

He held her hand as they finally added the mint leaves and then put their little blobs of dough on the large, flat stone. They put it into the fire and let it sit while they went upstairs and played with Snowy and Mr. Gobcup. Hiccup loved the personality she'd given Mr. Gobcup. It truly was a bizarre combination of his and Gobber's and he wasn't altogether sure how she pulled it off so well.

The cookies were ready several minutes later and they allowed them to cool before taking the extras out to the village, stopping only to put on boots. The frigid air did a good job of cooling the cookies. Several people were standing in a field nearby and Adrianna, gripping Mr. Gobcup to her chest, immediately went to investigate. Afterward, Hiccup would always regret not following her right away.

"...always kind, always courteous. She was one of my best friends and I'm really going to miss her." someone was saying to the group of people.

Hiccup, who had been distracted by the sight of a few kids playing in the slowly melting snow, heard a horribly familiar hiccup and turned toward his daughter. The girl was crying as quietly as she could but there was no masking the hiccups. He immediately bolted over to her as fast as he could.

"What's the matter, Addie?" he whispered, trying not to interrupt the people standing nearby.

"Miss Sigrid died. And they were saying that she was so nice and I never talked to her and now I can't." Adrianna wept, thankfully keeping her voice down. "Why did she have to die?"

Hiccup placed the container of cookies on the ground and took the girl's small hands in his. "Miss Sigrid was very old and very sick. It was time for her to go."

"But why?" Adrianna sniffled, trying to wipe away her tears with the back of her hand.

"I don't know. Nobody knows why." Hiccup reached up and wiped away a few tears with his thumb. "But we have to remember to spend time with the people we love. And appreciate them."

"But her family is so sad now." Adrianna looked over to several crying mourners.

"When someone you love dies, it is sad. But one day, it won't hurt so much. They're going to be okay." Hiccup put his arms around her. "Addie, it's okay. It was time for her to go. She knew it and they knew it. She's in a much better place now."

Adrianna hiccuped a few more times but her tears finally ceased. As much as he hated to see his little girl cry, Hiccup loved that she was compassionate enough to cry for people she didn't even know. Adrianna had always been selfless and kind, even when she was a toddler. There wasn't a mean bone in her body and it was something Hiccup intended to encourage and prayed that she would continue to be this way for the rest of her life. He gently kissed her on the forehead, took her hand, and continued to deliver cookies.

Gobber saw the father and daughter coming from across the village and immediately knew that there were cookies headed his way. He loved cookies. The first few batches of cookies that his almost-grand-niece had made were horrible but she had improved quite a bit and now he couldn't get enough. And he, like everyone else, looked forward to seeing Hiccup and Adrianna interact. It was almost mesmerizing to watch them talk to each other. The amount of love they had for each other seemed to radiate warmth all over the place and it was always nice to be caught in the blast.

Sure enough, they made a beeline for the forge. Adrianna ran up and hugged his leg with one hand while firmly gripping Mr. Gobcup with the other.

"Casual Saturday?" Gobber quipped, taking in their sleepwear.

"Pretty much." Hiccup said, completely unembarrassed.

Gobber looked down at Adrianna. "I see you've still got that dismembered doll of yours."

Adrianna nodded, looking quite proud of herself for keeping a toy this long.

"And what's its name again? Mr... Hic-ber?"

"Noooo!" Adrianna giggled. "Mr. Gobcup!"

"Oh. You see, I wouldn't know that because he doesn't look anything like me." Gobber said, taking one look at the doll's face.

"He's not supposed to. He's Mr. Gobcup." Adrianna reminded him.

"Well he doesn't look much like me or your daddy aside from the missing limbs."

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Oh so you just want your beautiful face on there, is that what you're saying?"

Gobber turned to look at Hiccup. "That's exactly what I'm saying!"

Hiccup crossed his arms. "Too bad. My daughter, my choice. Daddy always wins."

Adrianna let loose a giggle and hiccuped loudly. Gobber got on his knees as best he could (he still towered over her but it was at least a little bit easier to look her in the eye that way).

"Your daddy is stubborn. You know that?" he asked the girl.

Adrianna looked up at her daddy, a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. "Yeah, I know."

Hiccup gasped in mock offense. "Thanks a lot, sweetie."

"But you are!" Adrianna stuck out her tongue at him.

Hiccup stuck his tongue out at her in response. She giggled. "Well now you're making he feel sad." he said, puckering out his lower lip in mock sadness.

Adrianna, knowing full well that her daddy was kidding, stood up and patted him on the leg. "Don't be sad, daddy. I still love you." Hiccup beamed but she wasn't finished. "Even if you are the stubbornest person in the whole wide world."

Gobber burst out laughing. Hiccup forced himself to keep a straight face. "Well thanks, Addie." he deadpanned, making Gobber laugh even harder.

"That girl is going to be just like you when she's a teenager." he guffawed, wiping tears of mirth out of his eyes.

Hiccup snorted. "Thor help us all." he then turned back to his daughter. "Well I can't let you make fun of me without being punished!"

He lunged forward and attempted to tickle her. She shrieked with laughter and ran away as fast as she could, failing to notice a bucket on the ground. She did, however, notice when she was lying on her stomach in the dirt. Both Hiccup and Gobber continued to laugh as she got back up, a slightly sheepish expression on her face.

"Yep. We're doomed." Gobber sighed. The last thing Berk needed was another Hiccup but it looked like that was exactly what they were getting.

Speaking of being just like Hiccup, Adrianna continued to run away from her laughing daddy. A few seconds later, her foot collided with a clay flowerpot and she sent it flying into the one next to it. Crash, crash, crash went the pots in succession. Hiccup ran forward to try to catch the pots before they hit each other but inadvertently sent one flying with his prosthetic. When it was all over, there was only one unbroken flowerpot left. Adrianna stared at the mess she had made in horror. Hiccup caught her expression and grinned.

"Missed one." he said, kicking over the final flowerpot and shattering it.

Adrianna shrieked with laughter at the spectacle. She loved having a daddy as clumsy as she was. Hiccup ran forward and picked her up, laughing along with her.

"You better get out of here fast. Those were dad's." Snotlout said, leaning in through the forge's window.

"He wouldn't hurt an innocent little girl, would he?" Hiccup asked, genuinely curious now.

"Nope. But he would hurt the man whose genetics made her the way she is." Snotlout said with a smirk.

"What do you say, Addie? Think we should run before Mr. Spitelout comes back?" Hiccup asked his still giggling daughter.

"Uh huh." Adrianna said with a nod.

Hiccup placed her on the ground and grabbed her hand, running as fast as Adrianna could (which wasn't very fast). By the time they got home, they were completely breathless from laughter and the amount of running they had done. Hiccup glanced at his daughter and grinned widely. Her hair was still falling over her face, which was red from laughter. She was hiccuping at an alarming speed (and she probably would hiccup for quite a while later). She collapsed onto her back and stared up into the clouds, not minding that she was going to have a wet back from all of the snow. Enjoying her carefree spirit, Hiccup lay down next to her and they began to look for shapes in the clouds.

Xxx

Astrid and Finn returned a little after dark. When they pushed open the front door, they were greeted with a somewhat familiar sight. Hiccup was lying on the couch, looking like he was going to fall asleep any second, and Adrianna was on her knees next to him, her hands in his hair and her tongue sticking out in concentration. Finn stuck his own tongue out in disgust.

"Why do you let her play with your hair?" he asked, looking at the tiny braids his sister have weaved into their daddy's hair.

"It's very therapeutic. You should try it sometime." Hiccup said, smiling and keeping his eyes shut.

"No way! I'm not a girl!" Finn shook his head, looking even more disgusted.

"Had a good day?" Astrid asked, taking off her boots and looking relieved to be free of them.

"We sure did. There are some cookies on the table from this afternoon." Hiccup replied, finally opening his eyes and sitting up.

"Just one, Finn. Bedtime is soon." Astrid called to her son, who stopped only to nod at her before continuing to run at the sugary treats. She then sat down next to Hiccup and gave him a questioning look.

Hiccup knew exactly what she was asking. "Just one today." he whispered so that Adrianna couldn't hear.

Astrid sighed but her daughter looked perfectly happy so she supposed it was good news that her one incident hadn't gone very far. She felt a twinge of anger at the person who was responsible for her daughter's condition but quashed it. There was nothing she could do about that. Even so, it seemed so unfair that Adrianna had to suffer like that.

"She's okay now." Hiccup continued, seeing the look on his wife's face.

Astrid nodded. She supposed that things could be so much worse.

Xxx

"Nothing to report sir."

A young Viking chief with a horned helmet scowled irritably. "Keep looking." he said in a low tone.

"We've been looking for over a year and we haven't found-"

"I said keep looking! She was right about the Skrill. All we need is to prove that she was right about this too." the chief growled.

The soldier sighed deeply. "As you wish." he turned on his heels and left, still feeling like he was on a pointless mission.

The young chief chuckled to himself. They would find something soon, he could feel it. Just one little thing to prove her claim... and then all hell would break loose. This was his best plan yet. There was no stopping him now.