Chapter Five: The Announcement

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

Hiccup pulled the covers over his aching head but the pounding wouldn't stop. A few seconds later, he realized he was being tormented by his own heartbeat. The sound of a bird chirping outside made him wince. He groaned but found that even the noise he made hurt his ears.

"Good morning, sleepyhead!" shouted a voice nearby.

"Astrid..." he whispered, trying to soothe this aching head. "Stop shouting."

"I'm not shouting." Astrid bellowed. "You're just hung over."

Hiccup moved the covers off his head and looked up at his wife. She was carrying a skin of water and looking very amused about something.

And then he remembered.

"Ohh gods!" he moaned.

"Ahh, it's coming back to you now? What do you remember?"

Hiccup thought hard about the previous night. "Everything was spinning. Pretty sure I threw up at one point but I barely remember anything. Oh wait... there was a yak..."

Astrid burst into peals of laughter. Hiccup winced again and threw the covers up to cover his ears.

"The yak was your father." Astrid explained. "He helped me get you back here."

"Oh gods, I didn't say that out loud, did I?" he asked, his eyes widening in horror.

"Yes you did, as a matter of fact." she replied. "Don't worry; he thought it was funny."

"I'm so sorry; that must have been terrible." Hiccup moaned.

"It gets worse. I took you home to give you a bath and you tried to seduce me." Astrid grinned in glee at the horrified expression on her husband's face.

"That would explain why I'm wearing nothing but a cloth." he said slowly. "Please tell me I passed out at some point."

"You did as soon as I got you up to bed. No harm done. Thanks for doing that for me." Astrid kissed him on the forehead and handed him the skin of water, which he drank in one gulp.

"Anything for you." He said, wiping his mouth with his hand. "But please don't make that necessary again."

Astrid chuckled. "I won't. I promise. In fact, I've changed my mind. I think the village should know about the baby. I don't want to see something like that happen again. Plus, you almost announced it to everyone. Good thing you waited until we got outside."

Hiccup took a deep breath. "Thank you, Astrid. But right now, all I want to do is sleep off this hangover."

She smiled. "I think I'll join you."

She shut the windows, leaving the room very dim, and climbed into bed next to him. His body was warm and soft. She dearly wanted to put her arm around him but her bandaged arm was still useless. Instead, she planted a kiss on his shoulder and drifted off to sleep.

The newlyweds awoke late in the afternoon. Hiccup's head felt much better. He gently got out of bed so he wouldn't wake his sleeping wife.

He stood up for a moment and realized that he had no idea what he wanted to do. If he was going to tell the residents of Berk about the baby, he wanted Astrid to be there as well. Perhaps he could tell someone only he knew well.

He smiled slightly as he left his bedroom and quietly tiptoed down the stairs. It didn't take him long to walk over to Gobber's workshop, where the Viking was sharpening a rather large sword. He looked up as Hiccup walked in through his front door, his face splitting into a large grin.

"Ahh Hiccup! You're looking much better than you were last night!" he exclaimed, slapping the young man on the back so hard he nearly fell over.

"Yes well... that was an interesting night for us all, I think." Hiccup said, averting his gaze.

"It's my fault. Shoulda figured you'd be a bit of a lightweight. Shouldn't have made you drink so much. Astrid though, she's got a high tolerance!" Gobber placed the sword in a pile with several other swords.

"About that... I'm not a lightweight. Well, I probably am but I'm not that much of one." Hiccup explained. He looked up into the older man's eyes. "Astrid's going to have a baby."

Gobber didn't reply for a few seconds. In fact, he seemed momentarily stunned. Hiccup watched, waiting for him to move and feeling increasingly awkward.

"Well... that was fast." Gobber said at last. "Wish I'd have known that last night."

"Yeah we weren't going to tell anyone and then last night happened." Hiccup scratched the back of his head. "We want to make sure that doesn't happen again. Ever."

"Yes, you were quite entertaining." Gobber chuckled. "So... think you're ready for fatherhood?"

"Me? No... I mean not yet. I'm kind of hoping I will soon because I can't really go back now. The process is already started." Hiccup shrugged.

"Your father said the same thing." Gobber assured him. "And a couple'a days after you were born, he came back and told me he was wrong. He had no idea what to do. 'Course he might have said that because of the sleep derivation. Didn't sleep in weeks after you were born!"

"Oh... I see..." Hiccup said, trying to mask the horrified feeling creeping up on him. "I cried a lot?"

"Doesn't even begin to describe those first few months. I made the mistake of offering to take you for one night so your parents could sleep. We were both crying by the end of it." Gobber said rather nonchalantly. "I guess I'll get working on making some diapers. Got any idea when the baby's going to be born?"

Hiccup shook his head. "I have no idea. I'm not really worrying about that right now. I just want to make Astrid happy..."

"Ach, good luck with that! Stoick was frightened of Valhallarama for months."

Hiccup put up a hand. "Well, as edifying as this conversation has been, I really should get back to my wife." he said, hoping he didn't have a panic attack on the way back.

"Well congratulations!" Gobber said cheerfully.

"Yeah... thanks."

As he walked back to his house, Hiccup mulled over this new information. Perhaps it would be wise to get as much sleep as possible in the next few months. Just in case...

Astrid was awake when Hiccup returned to the house. He internally kicked himself for leaving her alone because she was frying a fish over the fire, probably out of spite more than anything else. The worst thing was, it looked and smelled delicious, unlike his horrible creation two days previously. She narrowed her eyes as she grinned at him, challenging him to complain. He wasn't going to take the bait.

"That looks great." he said, smiling back at her.

"Oh I know what you're thinking." Astrid shook her head. "You're not always going to be here to take care of me, you know."

"I know. I guess I just don't want to think about even spending one moment away from you." He walked up behind her and put his arms around her waist, placing a hand on her stomach.

"It's going to be a while before you can feel him." Astrid said as she pulled the perfectly cooked fish out of the fire.

"I know. I just want to be close to her." Hiccup whispered. "She's going to look just like you."

"He's going to look just like me." Astrid corrected. "It's a boy. I can tell."

Hiccup took a deep breath. "Nope. It's a girl."

"It's definitely a boy. I'm his mother. I can feel it." Astrid said through a mouthful of fish.

"Well I can feel that it's a girl." he gently rubbed her stomach. "And she'd better not give you too much trouble."

"Don't worry, he won't. I won't let him." She fed her husband a bite of fish rather skillfully with her left hand.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see." Hiccup said, chewing on the fish thoughtfully. "But I still think it's a girl"

"And I still think it's a boy." Astrid shook her head. "We can't agree on anything, can we?"

"We're going to have to figure out how to argue in secret once our child is old enough to understand us." He chuckled. "She's never going to be bored, that's for sure."

"No he won't." Astrid said, finally turning around to face her husband. "Now, while we don't have a baby to take care of, I think we're going to have to make up for any lost time in the next few months."

"Oh really?" Hiccup whispered, his heart rate quickening.

Astrid gently kissed him, placing her hands in his rather messy hair. He grabbed her waist and pulled her closer. He thought it was probably his imagination but her stomach did feel a little less flat. But to say something like that would ruin the moment so he remained silent. He closed his eyes, taking in the smell of her hair and the softness of her lips. He never wanted this moment to end. There was a lot to plan but right now, for a few hours, it was just him and Astrid and their baby no one else. Not even the dragons. Their love for each other had made this wonderful little life and he couldn't stop himself from pulling her even closer, not caring that he was probably squishing her. She couldn't be close enough. He lowered his head and planted kisses on her cheek and then her neck. She took a few steps back, weak at the knees, and sat down on the couch behind them. He continued to kiss her neck, keeping his arms firmly around her. And then he gently pulled up her shirt to reveal her stomach and planted a kiss just under her navel. She kissed the top of his head and he felt as though waves of heat were radiating down his body, making his insides melt completely. He didn't know he could love anyone so much. And now he couldn't imagine not loving his wife and his child as much as he loved them in that moment.

The couple had told Stoick to announce to the village that the baby was on the way in two days. They wanted to tell their closest friends first and hope that the word didn't spread before then. After a very wonderful night, they awoke and immediately called their friends together in the arena. The twins seemed to have completely forgotten that Astrid was pregnant, which was probably best considering they weren't exactly good at keeping secrets.

"Okay, well, for the next few months, possibly years, we're not going to be able to meet on a daily basis." Hiccup began, hoping to say everything before Snotlout remembered to glue his lips to Ruffnut's.

"Is that all you call us here to tell us?" Snotlout rolled his eyes. "Who cares?"

"We're not meeting because..." Astrid began. She looked at her husband, who nodded. "We're going to have a baby."

Dead silence. The entire group, even the twins, stared at the couple, wide eyed.

"Oh that's wonderful!" Fishlegs squealed.

His face reddened as everyone turned to look at him.

"I mean... congratulations." He mumbled, not making eye contact with anyone.

"But you're still not fat!" Tuffnut shouted, earning himself a punch in the face from Ruffnut.

"That was... really fast." Snotlout rolled his eyes. "Did you get started a little early?"

Hiccup's face went bright red. "That's none of your business!" he snapped as Astrid walked forward and punched Snotlout in the stomach, causing the burly Viking to fall to his knees and gasp for breath.

"What matters is Hiccup and I have to plan and get everything ready." Astrid said, blowing on her slightly sore knuckles. "And he won't let me fly by myself." She added, poking him in the ribs.

"It's a safety precaution!" Hiccup retorted.

"It's paranoid!" Astrid rolled her eyes.

"And I really don't care." Snotlout said, finally standing up. "Are we done?"

Hiccup sighed. "Yes, we're done."

Snotlout immediately grabbed Ruffnut and their lips became fused together. Tuffnut looked indignant and Fishlegs looked away with a strange expression on his face. Hiccup took Astrid's hand.

"Well, it's not much of a secret anymore." he whispered to her.

She shook her head. "No but I can't help feeling like this was a mistake."

Hiccup laughed. "Oh come on. Village full of Vikings there to support you... how bad could it be?"