A/N: Hey, peoples! Are you amazed at me? DAILY UPDATES!!!! I'm amazed at me, even if you aren't. I'm normally crap about updates. At this rate, this should be done by this weekend. I don't want it to be that long.

Also, to "Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston", my anonymous reviewer, thanks for pointing that out about the Red Death. I was never clear about that. Also, terribly sorry, but I am a squealing fandork when it comes to Astrid/Hiccup, so yes, they will be in here.

And…. I will write a fanfic (one shot, mind, I have a crazy schedule) for anyone who guesses what stone is in Ruffnut's ring. I'll give you a clue: the symbolism fits, the same way that Freyja does. Ok, if that's cryptic enough...

Enjoy!


"What's this?" Hiccup asked, holding up the strange gem. It was a lime green color, watery in a way. Snotlout shrugged.

"Honestly, I have no idea. My parents gave it to me on my tenth birthday, saying I had to keep it for the engagement ring of the woman I loved. I seriously ignored it at the time. I mean, I was ten. But my mom put it in this special box and buried it up by the cliffs to protect it from the dragon fires. After you showed us they could be tamed, she dug it up and it's been in my room ever since. Now I'm using it for what she and Dad said it was for."

Hiccup squinted at it. "It looks like a Zippleback scale, doesn't it? It's about the same color." Snotlout laughed.

"Yeah, I know. That's why I even remembered I had the stupid thing. I thought it was just me that was reminded of a Zippleback, was just that everything lately reminds me of h..." He looked down, a slight blush rising on his neck.

"You're allowed to love her, ya know," Hiccup said quietly, not looking up from the ring as he inserted the gem into the slot he had crafted for it. Snotlout snorted.

"Tell that to my parents. My mother came home last night, ranting about what a whore Ruff is and how she feels sorry for the guy who got her pregnant, as well as his parents. I was so close to telling her that self-pity won't get her anywhere but I couldn't do it. I was really threatened to, though," he added in a hateful tone.

"What?!" he yelped. "Your parents don't know?!"

"No. And they're not going to until we finish the house."

"House?"

"I'm turning eighteen in two months. My parents have decided that I'm moving out so we've been working on a house for me whenever the weather allows it. We've gotten pretty good at building houses." He laughed. "We've certainly had enough practice."

"So this is going to be a house for you and Ruffnut?"

"Yeah. Can't exactly raise a family at my parents' house. Look at that, I'm already calling it my parents' house and I haven't even moved out yet."

"Doesn't Ruff live on her own already?" Hiccup asked. Snotlout shook his head.

"No, she lives with Tuff. I thought it over and decided we should let him keep the house."

"I'm sure he appreciates it. So how are you guys? You and Tuff? Are you friends again?"

"Yeah," Snotlout responded, sighing. "He had every right to beat the hell outta me. I was stupid and I messed up and never even thought about the consequences it would have on her. I was a child and Astrid helped me to see that. That's why I'm doing this."

"Wait, hold on. No. No, no, no. You're proposing to Ruff to prove something to Astrid?"

"NO! That's not it at all! It's just that, without Astrid telling me that it was time to step up to the plate and to 'grow the fuck up', I would still be sitting in my house, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do with a pregnant girlfriend. So I thought about it, and about what Astrid said, and then I figured it out. A family is being started whether I like it or not. Either I can join it or I can lose it forever. I realized that that family was what I wanted, and had always wanted. Somehow, I think I always knew that, in some forgotten corner of my mind. And now… I'm gonna be a daddy." Both young men laughed at the term. "I can't wait to start my life with her and our kid."

"I'm happy for you," Hiccup said, clapping a hand on the bigger man's shoulder. He then handed him the completed ring, and watched the smile grow on his face as he took in the final product of his planning. "Good luck."

"Thanks, man. For everything," he replied sincerely, looking into Hiccup's eyes. Hiccup just nodded and Snotlout left the forge, a hopeful smile on his face.


"Ruff! Ruffnut! Thorston!!" She finally turned around as Snotlout hollered her name. Unfortunately for him, so did everyone else in the populated town square. He gave a few of them dirty looks, clearly saying 'Mind your own damn business'. Some had the good sense to look away from the glaring teen and his blushing girl. He turned away from them and focused his attention on the blonde in front of him. He grabbed her hand and led her away, his face glowing from the huge smile he wore. She looked alarmed but followed the man anyway.

He stopped but two hundred feet outside of the main town, outside of hearing range. Turning to face her, his smile grew bigger but there was an undercurrent of fear in his expression. Ruffnut smiled tentatively at him, hands resting on her stomach. Four months along, the position had become a familiar one. Her life was now ruled by her tummy: she walked around holding it protectively; she could no longer sleep on her sides or stomach; she couldn't fit into her clothes anymore. She had complained about the last to Eiri, who had become somewhat of a champion for her. The next day, Eiri had come by with baskets of maternity clothes, donated from some of the younger mothers who knew how scary the first pregnancy was. She was broken out of her reverie when strong, calloused hands gently held up her face to meet his. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. One of his hands moved to the back of her head as the other ghosted down her side. She pulled back, arms still twined about his neck.

"What was that for?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. His huge smile got wider, if that was possible.

"It was to prepare you for a question. A question that may change the rest of your life." He reached around and disentangled her hands from his neck. He then got down on one knee and pulled the ring out of one of his inner pockets. He took a deep breath as she put on hand over her mouth.

"Ruffnut Thorston, I think I've loved you from the moment I met you and it kills me that I wasted so many years. Then I finally got you in my arms, where you belonged, and I screwed that up too. Astrid made me see that. You are the love of my life, the mother of my child, and the one I want to spend the rest of my life with. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife, and loving me no matter what stupid thing I manage to do next? I love you so much… so will you marry me?"

Ruffnut didn't answer. Both hands were over her mouth and she was quietly sobbing. She fell to her knees in front of him, putting them level, and took him in her arms. She kissed his cheeks, his neck, his forehead, just about any part of him she could reach.

"Is that a yes?" he asked while she showered him in kisses.

"That's a hell yes, you idiot." He pulled her lips to his once more and kissed her better than he ever had before.


"Hey, Ruff!" Astrid called, running up to walk beside her friend. "Where ya going?"

"To visit Zee. She gets cranky when I don't visit her often enough but I keep trying to tell her that I'm breakable now."

"You were breakable before to your dragon, you just wouldn't admit it."

"Hush," she said, waving her arm around in from of Astrid's face, gesturing for her to be quiet. Astrid laughed.

"At least you've got that mama-lesson down… What the hell is that?" Astrid asked, standing stock-still. Ruffnut stopped and looked at her. The pregnant teen's best friend reached out and grabbed said teen's left hand, focusing on the ring finger. "What the hell is this?" Ruffnut blushed and smiled. Her best friend's eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped.

"He proposed?!" Her answer was an emphatic nod. She grabbed the other girl by the shoulders and danced around with her a bit. "You're getting married! When?!"

"We don't know yet. But… will you be my maid-of-honor?"

"Of course! I'd be offended if you didn't ask!" Ruffnut laughed.

"Oh, Astrid. I don't think I've ever been this happy."

"Good," Astrid declared. "That means Snotlout did something good for once in his life."

"Speaking of that… what'd you say to him?"

"What do you mean what did I say?"

"When he proposed he said something about you making him realize that he wanted to spend his life with me." Astrid couldn't restrain the 'aww!' that came with the recitation of one of Snotlout's more clichéd lines before she answered.

"I just told him that he needed to do right by you and act like the man he's always telling people he is. Apparently, marrying you is what he came up with. And judging by the look on your face, he was right to do it."

"It's just… I was so scared I was going to have to raise my baby myself. And now, I'm going to have someone to help me and love her…"

"Her? You sure it's a girl?"

"Yeah. I can feel it. She's gonna be just like her daddy."


"She's such a whore." The word triggered something in her mind. Something not good. She reached for her knife with her left hand. Astrid grabbed her arm.

"Uh-uh," she said, shaking her head. "You're pregnant. You're threatening the baby enough with your stress level." She ignored Ruffnut's mutter of "Not exactly my fault." "No need to make it worse by fighting with some stupid brat."

"She walks around like she's better than us, even though she's not married. She's not even that special. I mean, yeah, she was one of the first to ride a dragon but it's not like that's sooo special. Besides, she can't ride now anyway. Hopefully she's smart enough to not endanger her kid by riding."

"I'm gonna kill this bitch. Truthfully. I'm going to turn around and wring her scrawny little neck."

"You can't. You're already enough scandal without the murder of a kid on your hands."

"So?" She turned. "Hey, you little brat! If you're gonna talk shit, do it somewhere else. I'm not in the mood."

The girl, around fifteen or sixteen with brilliant blonde hair and brown eyes, looked at Ruffnut with disdain. The pregnant woman scowled at her while Astrid pulled on her arm. Ruffnut didn't move, her heels dug in. Astrid gave up with a mutter of "this is sooo juvenile," and glared at the young girl too.

"Ignore her," Astrid said loudly, making sure the girl and her little friends could hear. "She's just jealous you've got the ring and she doesn't even have a man. Or boy, at her age."

"Oh, and the hero's girl would know all about that, right? And what ring?! All of Berk knows she's not married!" Ruffnut smirked and proffered her left hand.

"Suck it, bitch." Astrid laughed. She was happy her friend had gotten her attitude back. But still, the girl was really just a child…

"Don't brag because your man loves you. And now that he's had a reality check, I have no problem calling him a man." She said that last part under her breath to Ruffnut.

"That's what really bugs me about you people and your stupid rumors about me: I wouldn't sleep with a man that I didn't love and that didn't love me. That's not how I work, to be honest." She made a shooing gesture at the end of her statement. The girl whirled around and stalked away, shooting glares over her shoulder of the pregnant girl, her friends trailing behind uncertainly.

"You know, by the time we get back to your house, your engagement will be all over Berk."

"Whatever. All the important people already know."

"What are his parents going to think about this?" Ruffnut stopped dead.

"Aww, shit."

"What?! Don't you do that! What's going on?"

"His parents don't exactly know yet."

"They don't know?!" Astrid shrieked. Ruffnut looked at the ground.

"They don't even know he's the father." Astrid looked dumbstruck. "He was going to tell them he was moving out and they would help them build a house. Then I would move in and we would tell his parents about it all afterward."

"Well, if they don't know he's the father, hearing that the father proposed won't be that big of a deal, right?"

"Here's hoping. And if they hear all the rumors flying around, well, they'll have to deal with it. He's the father, we love each other, we're getting married, and having a child. It's crazy. I go from having just Tuff and now I've got this instant family."

"It's what you deserve, Ruff. Happiness."