Astrid had helped Ruffnut prepare dinner for Eret and then snuck outside. Hiccup was already waiting, grinned when he saw her. From their hiding place in the bushes, they saw Eret saunter up the path and stumble in, yawning. They heard him mumble, crawling to hide under the window instead, peeking through. Eret had his back to them, planting a hello kiss on Ruffnut's cheek.

"What's all this then?" He smiled.

"Dinner. Made it myself."

"It looks lovely, but you didn't have to." Ruffnut just shrugged. Eret took a seat and she set his plate before him. Hiccup nodded to himself; so far so good. Ruffnut gave a timid half-smile as she sat opposite her husband, angling herself discreetly to keep her two friends in sight. "Did you sort things with your brother?"

"Yup." Ruffnut grinned. "He's coming over for dinner tomorrow."

"Why not today? This is amazing!" Eret praised. Ruffnut shone a cheeky grin his way. "Ah. Too good to share, eh?"

"Something like that."

"Are you alright, my queen?" Hiccup and Astrid grinned slyly. Ruffnut glared and they had to duck as Eret turned to see what she was glowering at. "Ruff?"

"Eret, I'm sorry. I just wanted to do one last nice thing before you left."

"I'm leaving?" Hiccup frowned. Not going to plan! He mentally yelled, trying to channel his thoughts to his friend. "Why am I leaving?"

"Well... I went to see Gothi and... um... there's a, uh... slight problem and..." Hiccup and Astrid peered over the window ledge. Ruffnut had pushed her dinner away, biting her lip to try and abate the tears. Chair legs scraped against the stone floor as Eret rose, moving round calmly and taking her in his arms. Ruffnut hid her face against his chest, the one bit of solidity in her life. Astrid gripped Hiccup's fingers, as worried for her friend as Ruffnut was for losing Eret. They could hear a slight murmur, a sniffle. They had to hide again as Eret turned his head.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure we can work around it together. I'm not going anywhere."

"You might."

"I made a vow to you and I shall treasure that until my dying day."

"Why aren't you this romantic?" Astrid breathed, pinching her husband's arm. Hiccup pouted.

"I'm not soppy." He whispered, barely audible. Astrid rolled her eyes and put a finger to her lips. Hiccup stuck his tongue out.

"Please don't get mad, Eret, but... I can't... have kids and-"

"And that's going to stop me loving you?" Eret shook his head. Hiccup got another pinch so he sent one straight back. With his attention on his wife, Hiccup and Astrid found it safe to watch the pair again. "My queen, please. I'm not shallow." Ruffnut opened her mouth to speak, but Eret shushed her gently. "I know I said I'd like for us to have children, but if that's not to be, then that's alright."

"Is it?"

"Well, keeping an eye on your brother is like looking after a toddler, so..." Eret hunched his shoulders. "But don't you ever think I'll stop loving you. And stop glaring at Hiccup and Astrid."

"I'm not!"

"You are!" Hiccup protested, jumping to his feet and wagging an accusing finger at her. Astrid face-palmed and sighed. "Oh wait... You didn't see anything." He told Eret and hid again, too little too late. Astrid flicked him, mouthing several curse words. "We should probably go. Ow! Hey!" Ruffnut had moved to the window and bopped him on the head too. "I'll remember this when either of you want one my brilliant plans." The women just hummed. Eret laughed.

"Ah, mate, that's not going to work." He joined his wife at the window, smiling at the other pair.

"You two going to be OK?" Astrid asked, standing. Ruffnut glanced hesitantly at Eret who grinned wickedly. Astrid took that as a 'yes'. "Excellent. Eret, give this dork a few lessons on romance, will you?"

"I can romance!" Hiccup insisted. Astrid scoffed. "Fine. I'll romance you into the ground; this is war, Eret."

"Aren't you always saying not everything has to be a competition?"

"And this isn't everything, just the art of romance."

"Mmm." Eret looked amused. "Yeah, I'm going to win." Hiccup blew a raspberry. "Maybe it's not just Tuff that's an overgrown toddler, hey? How about you go and romance Astrid somewhere else, I need to talk to my wife. Nothing bad, don't look so worried." Eret promised, smiling kindly at Ruffnut. Hiccup began a sarcastic comeback, but was cut short by Astrid dragging him away.

"Well, that's one thing off the to-do list."

"How did he even know we were there? We're stealthy." Astrid raised a brow at this. "Fine, you're stealthy. I blame this." He stopped and pointed at his metal foot. "With all honesty though, I'm as romantic as I can be. It's not my fault Eret has more time on his hands. I'd say how about we go away for a weekend at some point, but Alastor might just kill me for that. Or at the very least maim me." Astrid sighed. "Are you mad? That looks like your mad face."

"I'm always mad. Especially at you." He smiled sweetly. "Why don't you go and see Tuff?"

"I'll do one better. You go and see Tuff while I arrange his date. Can you make sure he's, you know, clean? Like bath, clean clothes, ecetera."

"For when?"

"Not tomorrow night, the night after."

"Right. And your plan would be?" Hiccup pressed his lips together. "Can you at least tell me who his date is?" A slight shake of the head. Astrid grumbled a series of choice words and marched off. Hiccup had to make this up to her later. Maybe he should pull a few romance cards from his deck. He could romance. He could romance better than Eret. Romance wasn't that hard. Romance was easy peasy potato squeezy. Never squeeze a potato. For starters, it wasn't always easy. Secondly, if it worked, it made a wee bit of a mess.

Mentally slapping himself, he got his thoughts back on track.

"Sort the date out, Hiccup." He told himself. "Potatoes and romance later."


I was going to do one long chapter to sort both of the twins' issues, but I'm spreading it out over a series of chapters instead. Then I'll do a time-skip and work on the other ideas! Ooh, big plans for this one! ^_^