Authors Note: This is my first story for like, 5 years so please be kind! Total hiccstrid family fluff, mainly daddy hiccup. One-shot, may develop it if I get some good reviews, we'll see.

Astrid looked around her.

It was getting dark, and an orange halo silhouetted the buildings to the west. The grass was a greyish green, recovering from the springs thaw and danced with long shadows in the evening breeze. Astrid tightened her shawl around her shoulders and listened to the sound of slow, soft footsteps, plodding lazily towards her. From where she stood, leaning on the front door-frame, she could see a young boy walking tiredly, up towards the house.

He had flushed red cheeks, still chubby with the last podge of infancy. Wrapped from his boot-clad feet to his be-scarfed rounded chin in fur pelts, he was just far too tired to walk any faster than his slow plodding pace. He pushed his coppery hair up, out of his eyes, dragging a trail of snot from his nose up his face as he went. His eyes were drooping, and he wasn't thinking of much at all.

Astrid doubted he'd even want something to eat before bed, the poor lad looked so tired. She lovingly watched as her oldest son, now nearly seven years old dragged himself wearily up the steps.

"Dad's worked me to death," he groaned as he walked into the living area, not even bothering to wipe his feet on the door-rug.

"Now Fin," Astrid started gently, "I'm sure it wasn't that bad!"

"It was!" Fin collapsed backwards, over the side of the couch, his feet dangling over the sides in exaggerated exhaustion. Astrid walked over and pulled off his boots, tickling the underside of his feet and pulling playfully on his toes as she did.

"Mum! Stop!" Fin cried, desperately trying to suppress his giggles. "I'm nearly seven! You can't do that any more!"

"So stop me!"

"I can! I'm stronger than you!"

"We'll see about that," Astrid challenged, scooping the boy off the couch and onto the floor. She sat on-top of him, pinning down his elbows with her knees and ticked him mercilessly, not relenting even as the tears of laughter fell from the boys face.

"Mum! Mama! Stop! I'm the mightiest! You can't do this to me!"

"You don't look like the mightiest right now, young Fin!" Astrid teased, relenting her hold and letting him push her off, rolling over her and attempting to pin her down with his little knees over her elbows, but struggling to fit over the swell of her slightly gravid belly.

"I am! I am the strongest, the mightiest, the bestest fighter in this house and I challenge you to-"

In his mirth, Fin hadn't noticed the padded footsteps clink up behind him. Suddenly, he was plucked into the air by two strong hands and was flying up to the ceiling, then was falling, falling and then caught by his smiling father.

"Better be careful what you challenge your mother to, son. She was the fierciest warrior Berk's ever seen back in the day."

Astrid narrowed her eyes at her husband. "Back in the day? I still am!"

"I could take you on!" Fin goaded confidently.

"You've been spending too much time with Uncle Snotlout."

"I like Uncle Snotlout! He doesn't make me clean the stables all day!" The boy elongated the last two words for emphasis, rolling his eyes in the same way Hiccup often did. Astrid tried not to smile.

"Yes, well, little boys who have been busy mucking out stables all day need to have their dinner, and a wash, and get a good nights sleep," chided Astrid

"I'm not tired!" Fin insisted. "And I'm not little."

Hiccup grabbed two bowls from the kitchen table and plonked one in front of his son, digging into the other with the same enthusiasm that he always greeted his evening meal with. Fin followed suit, and before Astrid had time to prepare some water for them to wash in they had both finished, and were raiding the biscuit chest to see what treats she'd baked today. As she took the warm water off the fire hook, she felt a hand on the small of her back, and Hiccup took the water pail from her.

"I'll get that, love, you shouldn't be carrying heavy things."

"As if I could get through a day without lifting this, I'm a Viking housewife"

Hiccup narrowed his lips chidingly, but knew he couldn't really argue. He put the pail on the table, threw a wash cloth at Fin and settling a hand on his wife's neatly rounded stomach.

"And how are my babes today?" hiccup smiled, leaning in to kiss Astrid gently on the lips. Somewhere behind him, Fin made a sound like retching.

"Noula is asleep on our bed, I couldn't get her to settle in the crib, and Liv and Leif in bed, but I think awake still. They were when I finally got Noula down."

"I meant you and the one in here"

"That's the easy one." Hiccup looked at her, "we're fine! Just a bit tired."

"Well, you go to bed and I'll get Fin up and then we can have some time alone"

"I can't, I've only just got Noo to sleep, she might wake up if I move her now."

Hiccup sighed to himself. Life with four kids - and a village to run - meant he didn't get much time alone with his wife anymore. He loved them to bits, there was no denying - Fin, with his exaggerated confidence and schemes that always seemed to land him in trouble; Liv, his oldest daughter, with big blue eyes and an aptitude for drawing; Leif, a steadfast little boy with a determination to be as good as his big brother at absolutely everything and finally little Noula, or Noo as he called her, after the joking noise he made after finding out his wife was pregnant yet again, barely a year after Leif was born. Noo was the spitting image of her mother, with blonde hair and blue eyes, whilst the other three had hair like his. However,. there was no denying that they took up a lot of his wife's time and energy. Hiccup idly wondered who this fifth baby would take after. He couldn't quite imagine having a blonde son - it just summoned up images of his old friend Fishleg's chubby little lad, now four years old and when clad in winter furs looked like a cute walking barrel.

He gently pushed his wife onto a chair, and left her happily chattering with Fin about his day at the dragon academy.

"Dad says I can have my own dragon when I'm eight! But first I have to clean out all the stables every day to show that I am responsibuble enough to look after one all on my own..." Hiccup heard him chatter away as he walked up the stairs, two at a time. He peeked his head around a door, where two small voices where whispering inside.

"Daddy!" cried Liv, her eyebrows thrown up in happiness.

"Shhh, stay in bed now, both of you", Hiccup whispered, pushing them both gently back into their bunks. He'd built this bunk bed shortly after Liv turned two and was too old for her crib. He'd had to build a second a few years later, and now Liv and Fin occupied top bunks, whilst Leif occupied the bunk below Fin, and Noula slept in a crib that fitted in the bunk under Livs. He'd have to think of a new arrangement, with the new baby, he thought. Five kids. Wow.

Some time later, as he blew out the candle in the kids room, having settled the three youngest (Noo carried ever so gently from her parents bed, Hiccup whispering soft nothings as she stirred), he felt a wave of love and responsibility wash over him. These tiny little lives, the lives of all his villagers, and all the dragons, rested on his shoulders. He was just glad the last twelve years had been peaceful. How had his father done it?

At the tender age of 27, Hiccup sometimes wondered if he should be worried about heart attacks. His life was nothing if not fast paced.

He and Astrid had married aged 21, one year into Hiccup's Chiefdom. Fin had been born within the year, followed by Liv and Leif, in very quick succession by the time he was 25, then Noula last year and a new-un due before the summer was out. In addition to this, he'd had to train two new apprentices at the forge, to cope with the influx of dragon related accessories needed and Gobbers imminent retirement. On top of that, he still had to run the dragon training academy, and in the recent years Astrid had most of the time been far too busy (or pregnant) to help, and besides, even if she'd had the time, Toothless was so overprotective of her when she was pregnant, she wouldn't have been able to do much to help. Toothless even growled at Hiccup if he got too close, sometimes. Normally only when the night fury was sulking though. Hiccup didn't find much time for flying these days either. He missed it dearly.

Sniggers about Astrid and Hiccups sex lives had mostly stopped nowadays, except from Snotlout, of course. Now people treated news of Astrid's pregnancies with a bemused expression and a comment whispered discreetly into a friends ear, and nothing more. It was true that the Haddock's had a bigger family than was common in Berk. Hel, they probably had the biggest family in Berk's history, but as his mother said whenever she visited - which was nearly every day - it was more to love. After losing his mother at a young age, and not being close to his father, and then finding his mother and losing his father on the same day - well, Hiccup just relished in being surrounded in family. His family. And most of all, his wife.

Strong, beautiful, surprising Astrid, who approached marriage and motherhood with the same strong determination that she approached everything. Her family was the cleanest, best fed, friendliest bunch in all of Berk - and probably the whole Barbaric archipelago, or at least it was to her. There was nothing this family couldn't do. Except stop reproducing - or so it seemed.

00

"What are you looking at?" Fin moaned at his brother.

"I'm boooooored" whined Leif.

Liv looked up from her drawing, hands black with charcoal, "I'm bored tooooo,"

Noo crawled over and pulled on her daddy's metal leg, "Uuurughh"

Hiccup stood up. Four bored kids, getting more bad tempered by the minute, and he wasn't really sure what to do with them. He wasn't often left alone with all four of them, but it was laundry day, and Astrid was at the thermal pools with his mother, doing the weeks wash - a family of six, with one still in napkins, produced a lot of laundry in a week. She'd be there most the day and it was barely mid-morning yet. He contemplated taking them to the swimming pond, but didn't have enough hands as Leif still couldn't swim, and Liv wasn't great at it, and he had to keep Noo on him. Nope, not safe. He thought of the beach, but for the same reason vetoed it - more stressful than fun. He could take them for a walk, but ran the risk of them running off. He could take them to the mead-hall and see if anyone was in there that could amuse them - but his little tribe were a walking (and crawling, and running and pooping) whirlwind that could uproot tables and Vikings alike within minutes - best not. He could take them to someone's for a play date.. Yes! That was an idea. He'd take them to Fishleg's. Ruff wouldn't mind, he tried to convince himself. Ah well.

"How about going round to see Rori?" he asked the kids, whose faces instantly lit up. Rori had loads of cool dragon toys!

It took them a good half an hour to get furs and boots on. Eventually, with Noula strapped to his front in a papoose, Fin reluctantly holding onto Leif's wrist ("I'm too old to hold hands Dad!" and Liv obediently holding his own hand, they all climbed down the steps and crossed the village to the lodge where Fishlegs and Ruffnut, now fairly happily married, lived. Stopping at every puddle, which was a lot in the spring thaw, and at every sheep ("Look Dad! It's so fluffy!") and having to stop to point at every dragon overhead ("Da! A da!" Noo shouted excitedly every time. She seemed to have the same word for Dragon and Dad which secretly, Hiccup liked.), meant it took approximately a gazillion times longer to get there than it should have. Releasing Leif, Fin ran up to the door and banged his fist on it. Fishlegs answered.

"Fin, Hi little man! What are you doing here?"

"Dad said we could come play with Rori"

Fishlegs looked up to see an apologetic looking Hiccup, who had had to dash to grab Leif (who had taken advantage of his new found freedom to run in the opposite direction) causing Hiccup to accidently drag Liv over, who scuffed her knee on the floor and burst into tears. Noula, sensing the sudden panic in her dad and not liking the quick movements, decided to join in with her sister and burst into wailing sobs too. Then Leif, also not liking the sudden arm around his waist that yanked him off the floor just as he was finally making headway let out a frustrated yell and started throwing a wobbler, thrashing about in Hiccups arms, who turned to his old friend and mouthed the word "Help!". Fishlegs let out a sympathetic half smile and said "come in."

As Fishlegs was placating Liv with a "super cool" bandage to the knee, Hiccup had dumped Leif in the corner to howl his tantrum out, and was bouncing Noula on his knee. She smiled up at him, gabbling baby jargon with her best conversational tone. Although she couldn't say much, she was a chatty little thing, always having something important to tell you and got very frustrated when you didn't answer her properly. Of course it was impossible to tell what she was really saying, all though a lot of was either do with with daddy, or dragons, and sometimes Mama, or Fin or Iv, which seemed to be her name for both Liv and Leif. Rori and Fin were under the stairs, playing loudly with Roris toy dragons. Hiccup put Noula on the floor for a crawl. Fishlegs and Ruff had a six month old who had just started crawling, so Cheif knew their house was babyproofed and it'd be safe for his youngest to explore. For the first time in what felt like days, but was really probably just a couple of hours, Hiccup could sit back and relax. Well, relax as much as you can with your three year old wailing like he'd just been stabbed in the gut by a nadder spike. Which he hadn't been.

"Tough day?" Fishlegs sat on the couch opposite him.

"I don't know how Astrid does it."

"Well Fin is normally at school. And Liv will be starting soon."

"Fin isn't the problem. He's great. Sensible. Livs not too bad, she likes to play pretty quietly. And Leify, when he's not screaming is pretty sweet. I cant fault Noula," he smiled at the baby who was currently pulling herself up onto her feet on the crate next to him and was watching him with wide blue eyes, "she just does what babies do. It's just, together. That's eight legs! They can run in a lot of directions at once"

Fishlegs chuckled. "Have you tried making like, a harness for them or something?"

"Like for a dragon?" Hiccup raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah! You could like, have a chest harness or like a belt for each of them, and a harness with a papoose for you, for Noula, and you can tie them to you with rope or leather, like long enough for them to wander but not so long that they can get away. You could make them retractable. I don't know, you're the inventor."

"That's quite a good idea!" Hiccup murmured, his fingers itching for a stick of charcoal as blueprints started forming in his head. At that moment, the front door crashed open, startling Leif out of his tantrum, which had mostly blown out anyway. Ruffnut, tall, still impossibly skinny, with a blonde baby strapped to her back and a huge, slightly dripping, laundry basket on her head burst into the room.

"Miss me?" She gleamed, enjoying the apparent atmosphere of chaos that had taken over her house as soon as the Haddocks had arrived.

"Always" replied Fishlegs, kissing his wife on the cheek and releasing baby Vola from her papoose. He plonked her on the floor next to Noula, who patted her on the head. Ruff swept through her living room, ruffling Livs messy hair and plopping the clothes basket down on her kitchen table, still littered with breakfast bowls. She lowered the clothes horse from the ceiling, and turned to the babies, who were watching her intently. Stalking forward, she lowered herself to their eye-lines, and looked Noula dead in the eyes.

"You," she said, "poop. A lot." She turned to her own daughter. "I mean you poop a lot too, but woah, you are nothing compared to Noo. What do you feed her, Hic?"

"She's on solids now"

"Already? No wonder Astrid got knocked up again so quick"

"Ha ha, very funny," Hiccup snarked, "Ruffnut made a pregnancy joke. Never heard one of them before."

Ruff snorted a laugh. "Are you guys staying for lunch? I've got an onion soup going, there's enough for everyone"

"Really?"

"Yeah, I figured you'd be coming here today."

Hiccup stared at her questioningly.

Ruff rolled her eyes. "Laundry day? Also known as Astrid-is-busy-all-day-day and Hiccup-can't-cook-for-shit day-"

"Language!" chided Hiccup, mildly irritated. Even after all these years, Ruff could still be extremely annoying. "Okay, yes, please, we'll stay for lunch. Thank you."

"And after we'll take the kids to the cove," smiled Fishlegs, knowing full well that the walk would exhaust the kids and give all parents involved an early night. Hiccup smiled a grateful smile at him. They could easily manage the six kids between the three of them.

Life was so different with children! It seemed like every moment, when he wasn't working at the forge, or the academy, or following his cheifly responsibilies, was devoted to tiring out his offspring. The days of flying free on Toothless, sneaking off to hidden caves with Astrid, discovering new dragons and new lands seemed like a lifetime ago. Well, it was a lifetime ago. Four lifetimes ago, from his kids perspectives.

00

The sun hadn't even started to set as Hiccup, Fishlegs and Ruffnut shepherded the gaggle of children back into the village. The trek had done it's trick, and Rori was half asleep on his mothers back, as Hiccup carried Leif over his shoulder. Fishlegs had both the babies tucked under his arms, and Fin was dragging a grumpy, heavy lidded Liv behind him by the hand. Fishlegs passed the totally zonked out Noo to her father as they parted ways- her head lolled against his shoulder but she didn't even stir. Hiccup smiled. Perhaps they'd all go to bed early without a fuss and he could finally get some time with his wife.

Astrid heard them coming, and was standing at the door-front when her family plodded up into the house.

"Night", Fin muttered, heading straight up the stairs, stripping off his shirt as he went.

"Goodnight Fin," Astrid called after him, totally bemused.

"I'll take these up too," whispered Hiccup, looking slightly heavy lidded himself.

Astrid stood at the foot of the stairs, slightly taken aback as her husband carried her brood up the stairs. She followed a moment behind, picking up the lagging Liv and chiding them silently for not taking off their boots at the door.

Within ten minutes all four of the children were undressed, hair brushed, hands and faces washed and in bed, already mostly asleep. Hiccup and Astrid tiptoed down the stairs, believing it almost too good to be true.

"I'll have to leave you with the kids more often!" Astrid teased, delighted at the unexpected peace and quiet. She ladled a bowlful of stew into a bowl and passed it to Hiccup before getting herself one. She took the stew off the heat - there was a lot left, but never mind, it'll do for tomorrow's lunch. She pushed Toothless' nose out of the pot and he warbled pathetically at her, stopping only when she gave him the same look she gives the kids when they're pushing it.

"We took them to the cove."

"The cove?!" She couldn't believe it, that was a good few miles away. How had their little legs coped? No wonder they were tired.

"Yup. They had fun."

"You look tired"

Hiccup smiled at her and winked. "Yeah well, you look beautiful,"

"I look fat", Astrid muttered, pushing one hand over her baby bump as she spooned stew in her mouth.

Hiccup looked at her with worshipping eyes "You are beautiful, and round, and perfect, and I hope you always stay that way"

Astrid snorted. "I am not always staying pregnant!"

"Why not?" Hiccup teased, "I mean from the current evidence, you've been pregnant for a lot of the last few years and I mean if that's an indicator, statistically, I mean- oof!"

Astrid had punched him in the arm. "Shut up!"

Hiccup grinned, "No but really. You're beautiful. pregnant, and not pregnant. Although I like you pregnant." As she fell into his embrace, kissing him tenderly on the lips and eyeing up their bedroom beyond, he thought of how lucky he was. He really did like her pregnant. Something about seeing her round with his baby made him feel really proud, really... dominant. He hadn't felt particularly masculine or worthy as a chief until Astrid had fallen pregnant with Fin, and suddenly seeing his wife so obviously round with his child, his virility - he stopped doubting himself. This was who he was. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. Chief, Blacksmith, Dragon Master, Husband... but most of all, Da.

AN: I know, I know, total fluff. I'd love some reviews!