Unformatted text is Norse, or narration.

Italicized text is Irish.

Underlined text is Dragonese.

Bold text is used for emphasis (and author's notes).

There was a steady dripping sound coming from somewhere in the room, somehow sounding impossibly loud and incredibly distant. Aran had his eyes closed, trying to keep his breathing regulated. Drip. Drip. Drip. In. Drip. Drip. Drip. Out. The pattern continued. A deep, rumbling sound came from nearby, but he paid it no mind. He tried to focus, but he wasn't sure what to focus on save for the steady dripping. The rumbling sound came back, and he pried his eyes open when he felt a large hand touch his shoulder through the thick blanket he was wrapped in.

"Aran. Stay with me." Aran looked at the large man through bleary eyes and shivered.

"I'm awake…" He said.

"I can't understand you unless you speak Norse." Stoick said, and Aran drew the blanket tighter around himself.

"I'm awake." He repeated. Stoick gestured something at him, but he gave him a blank stare.

"Come closer to the fire. That is… If you can move." Aran slowly crawled over next to Stoick, ignoring the throbbing in his head and the way the world blurred, focusing instead on getting closer to the fire. "Better?" He could feel the warmth tingling throughout his body.

"Yeah…" They were quiet, and Aran felt himself drooping.

"Aran." He sat upright.

"I'm awake." He insisted. Stoick sighed.

"Let's talk." Aran give him a confused look. "About anything. What's on your mind?"

Oh.

He didn't know. What was on his mind? Blurry images jumbled together, and he wasn't quite sure what to say. He made sure to tap his fingers on his knee so Stoick knew he was trying, thinking about what might be on his mind. It hopefully didn't take too long for him to come up with his answer, and he wondered how he hadn't realized it immediately.

"I'm scared." He drew the blanket closer around him, voice sounding timid and small yet managing to fill the room completely. "I'm scared we're going to die, and leave Hiccup all alone. With just his mom. And he never got the chance to have a real family."

"Is there anything else you're afraid of?" Aran thought for a moment.

"... I don't want to die. I wanted to- to get married, and have kids, and start our own family…" His voice was small, and Stoick was struck by just how young Aran was. "And we were going to move into my house, and make it bigger for the kids and their dragons… And…" Aran sniffed. "And we said it would be perfect and… And he said we could keep having kids until one of them had his eyes…" He'd leaned closer to Stoick's body heat without realizing it, and Stoick put a large, fatherly arm around the younger man.

"Whose eyes?" He prompted, somewhat confused by the pronoun usage.

"Hiccup's." If Stoick was surprised before, he was even more so now. "He has such beautiful green eyes, just like his mother…" He hugged himself. "I can't think of anything better than waking up to them every morning…" Stoick couldn't argue with that. He loved waking up to Valka's beautiful green eyes in the short time they'd spent together.

"And does Hiccup, er, return these… feelings?" Aran didn't notice Stoick's discomfort in the slightest.

"I really hope so, considering the fact that we've been together for almost two years now." Stoick hummed thoughtfully, and there was a significant lull in the conversation.

"Stay with me."

"I'm awake."

The drip in the cave continued.

"How would the two of you…? Men can't have children together." Aran hadn't implied that he was planning on adopting, after all.

"I can get pregnant, it'll work out." He answered simply.

"Oh." Stoick didn't know what to say about that.

"I used to have breasts…" Aran continued speaking. "Cut them off when I turned fifteen and burned the wound shut because I didn't know how to stop the bleeding." Stoick shifted uncomfortably, but Aran didn't notice. "I was drunk. I almost… died."

"Well, don't think about that." Aran nodded, wincing when his head throbbed.

"Hiccup doesn't mind." He said, referring to the state of his body.

"Tell me more about him." Stoick prompted.

It wasn't as if he particularly wanted to hear this boy (in his eyes- he was nearly thirty years older than him!) gush about his son, but he didn't miss the way his face focused when he was talking about him, and if that was the best way to keep him awake, he would encourage it. Aran's loving ramblings for his boyfriend reminded Stoick of his own feelings for Valka, and despite his initial discomfort, he actually found himself enjoying the conversation. Stoick had never made any sort of effort to form a bond with Aran, despite him being his son's best friend (and now apparently lover) for the past seven or so years. He was surprisingly easy to talk to, and despite the concussion he had, was a wonderful storyteller. It was through these stories Aran was telling that Stoick realized just how much he'd been absent in his son's life before the incident with the Red Death, and even after that he hadn't heard half of the things Aran told him.

"Once he told me he'd never been attracted to anyone but me and I nearly died on the spot because that was too sweet for me to handle." Stoick chuckled.

"So he never felt anything for Astrid? Or Iris?" He was only slightly surprised. If he remembered correctly, he hadn't been particularly broken up about the two of them.

"Oh, Astrid is dating Heather. Neither of them liked each other that way, but they didn't want to be forced to date anyone they didn't like just to have kids, so they pretended they were dating for a while."

"What about Fishlegs?" He'd been under the impression that Fishlegs was dating Heather. "Is he secretly with Snotlout?" Stoick joked, and Aran laughed.

"No, he's with Heather too." Stoick nodded. It made sense. "Hiccup only pretended to date Iris because I gave him a hickey and he didn't know how to explain it away to you."

"You kids and your fake relationships." He chuckled. "Back in my day, we got married as soon as possible, just in case anyone got snatched up by a dragon! Before Val was taken…" He launched into a tale from his youth.

The two of them exchanged hours upon hours of stories, laughing when they described similar circumstances between the couples. Hiccup was very much his mother's son, and it turned out Aran was a lot more like Stoick than either of them realized, so their stories made parallels quite often. Stoick felt sure that at least a day had passed, and the fatigue was evident for both of them, but he could tell Aran's condition was more stable now. The younger man had lost a significant amount of blood from the burn wound, but the bandages wrapped tightly around his torso were doing a splendid job in stopping the blood flow. As for the concussion, Stoick was sure he would recover from that soon. The broken leg wasn't a significant issue either, so all that was really left to worry about was a possible infection from the burn. Aran noticed Stoick appraising his condition and made a joke about both of their backs getting fucked up. It was a bit of a dark thing to joke about, but it brought a laugh out of Stoick. The Irish man yawned.

"Aran…" Stoick said.

"I'm awake, I'm awake…" He mumbled, sounding half asleep. He'd been awake for what seemed like an eternity.

"Well-"

"Stoick!" Valka's voice echoed from somewhere distant. Stoick looked to the entrance and gave a tired smile to his wife when she appeared, still clad in her armor, but without the helmet. "Oh, thank the gods." She breathed out, rushing to his side and hugging him.

"Mom?" Aran asked, sounding more than a little out of it.

"Don't worry, we're going to take you back home." She pulled Aran into a gentle hug. Two sets of uneven footsteps entered the room.

"Aran? Dad?" Stoick nodded at his son before returning his attention to his wife.

"You still can't…?" She placed a hand on his leg. Stoick shook his head. "Let's get you onto Skullcrusher…" Valka muttered, waving Gobber over. Stoick suddenly noticed that in addition to Toothless, Cloudjumper, and Grump, they'd also brought Méaróg and Skullcrusher.

"I'm cold…" Aran shivered when Stoick's body heat was taken away.

"Hey, it's okay, I'm here." When had Hiccup come over? He wasn't sure, but he immediately pulled him down in an attempted kiss.

"You missed." Hiccup sounded amused, glancing towards his father, who was busy being hoisted onto his dragon, before giving Aran a quick peck on the lips. "Come on, you'll be riding with me." Hiccup helped him up, pulling him to his feet. The blanket fell to the ground.

"Fuck." Aran muttered, head spinning as he instantly lost his balance. Hiccup made sure to catch him, and he wrapped his arms around the taller male, leaning heavily on his good leg. "I'm fine." He insisted, not even having to look at Hiccup to feel the concern emanating from him.

"I'm allowed to worry about you." Hiccup wanted to hug back, to hold him and never let go, but he wasn't sure how much would be too much and he didn't want to worsen any wounds.

"Aran." Valka approached. "I'd like to change your bandages before we leave."

"Oh, yeah." There was probably blood on them.

Hiccup didn't even let him attempt to hobble over to the table Valka wanted him to sit on. He hooked an arm under his legs and carried him instead. If Aran was more focused and actually capable of thought, he would have probably been surprised that Hiccup had the strength to carry him. Valka changed his bandages without any problems arising, handed him a glass of water (which he quickly finished), and soon he was cradled in Hiccup's arms once more. Aran let Hiccup carry him without any protest, and Valka suggested they bring the blanket with them so Aran wouldn't freeze on the ride back to Berk. Hiccup agreed that it was probably a good idea, and soon they were leaving Valka's makeshift infirmary. Seeing as Stoick was unable to walk and therefore limited to sitting on Skullcrusher's back, the group had to take a long path out of the sanctuary. Aran pointed at the sky when they made it outside, sounding surprised when he stated that the sun was setting. It had been several days since that had last happened.

Due to Stoick and Aran's injuries, they were deemed unsafe to fly on their own. Considering the fact that Toothless couldn't fly on his own, Aran rode with Hiccup while Méaróg followed close, hovering near his brother in concern. Valka joined Stoick on Skullcrusher, worried that he would fall off due to the paralysis in his lower half. Cloudjumper stayed close to her, not particularly worried that she would slip, but wanting to be nearby just in case. Gobber knew he was only there for the extra muscle needed to hoist Stoick up onto Skullcrusher, and he stayed quiet for the ride back. All of them stayed quiet, in fact. Valka had decided Aran was probably recovered enough to sleep without passing on, so it was very early on in the flight that he dozed off in Hiccup's arms. Stoick, while exhausted, couldn't bring himself to sleep while so high up in the sky. He stayed alert the whole way home.

When they arrived at Hooligan Village, Gobber took off to get some shut eye before the sun rose again. Hiccup and Valka, on the other hand, agreed that it was a good idea to go visit Gothi. The small old lady was wide awake when they arrived, already brewing some sort of mysterious concoction. She whacked Aran on the shoulder with her stick, startling him awake before insisting that he drink the thick, foul smelling liquid. Aran did so without hesitation, oddly stating that it tasted like limes before scrunching up his nose and shuddering. He looked around, seeming disoriented before stating that his head didn't hurt quite as much, and his vision was clearing up. Hiccup hugged him as Gothi began walking in circles around Stoick. She then informed them that there was a very slim chance he would ever walk again, but they shouldn't count on it. Stoick was quiet as he nodded, and Gothi moved back to Aran when she had confirmed that there was nothing she could do to help him. Stoick and Valka made their way back to the Haddock household after Val stated Hiccup should probably spend the night at Aran's house.

Gothi spent some time whipping up something else, and through some difficult interpretation of what seemed like chicken scratch in the the dirt, Hiccup learned that it was a better ointment for Aran's new burn. Hiccup nodded, recalling how long it had taken him to recover from the one on his chest. Aran was given the advice of resting a lot until he was good enough to walk on his own again. He didn't object, though that was likely because he was half asleep. Hiccup picked him up once more, leaving Gothi's hut. Both Toothless and Méaróg were waiting outside, and Hiccup glanced between them. Méaróg looked terribly worried, so he shot an apologetic look to Toothless before mounting the desert wraith. As Méaróg began an easy glide towards Aran's house, Hiccup was startled by how little influence he had on the flight course. It was interesting, and completely different from flying on Toothless and feeling like they were one being. Toothless followed them to Aran's house, and Hiccup carried his boyfriend to bed. He'd fallen asleep at some point during the short flight, and after removing his foot, Hiccup laid down with him. He made sure Aran's back wasn't touching anything in the slightest, and that his broken leg was properly situated before letting his own exhaustion overtake him and drifting off to sleep right along with him.

The next few weeks were spent almost exclusively on trying to clean the town of the Alpha's destructive ice, as well as assisting Aran in his recovery. Stoick was slowly adjusting to his loss of mobility, and now had to ride Skullcrusher any time he wanted to go anywhere on his own. It was inconvenient and crippling. So much so, that it only took him a week to realize that he wasn't suited for his position as chief anymore. And Valka was in no shape to take over, as her behavior had become more animalistic than human over the years and she was still adjusting to the social atmosphere of the village. That left the position of Chief to Hiccup, but nobody had exactly told him yet. He was too busy worrying about Aran, and his services weren't needed yet. Not to mention, now wasn't the time for a sudden shift in leadership. They all needed time to recover from the battle with Drago and the Alpha.

Hiccup had woken up one morning to find Aran still asleep in his arms, leg healed and concussion long gone but the burn still needing a significant amount of recovery. At least he could wear shirts again, though. For a while he couldn't, due to the need for the bandages to be readily changeable at any moment. Hiccup smiled at his boyfriend, leaning down to kiss him on the forehead before slipping out of bed and heading towards his own house. He'd been staying with Aran indefinitely to help him recover and prevent him from doing anything stupid (like trying to swim). When he arrived, Stoick and Valka were eating breakfast, Skullcrusher and Cloudjumper nearby.

"Morning mom, dad." He greeted, hugging his mother with a smile. "How's your morning been?" Hiccup took a piece of bread from the table and began buttering it. He hadn't eaten yet, after all.

"Oh, Cloudjumper forgot how to get in the house again so we had to help him inside, but it's been lovely. You?" Hiccup shrugged, biting into the bread.

"I can't really say much. Nothing happened. Aran's still asleep." He wondered why his father never said anything about the ridiculous portion of time he spent at Aran's house. Stoick chuckled. "What?"

"You practically live there already. When are you planning on moving in?" Hiccup gave him a blank stare before looking at his mother, who seemed amused.

"What- why would I move… move in?" He was sure there was a cautious edge to his voice as he slowly inched towards the stairs where his room was. Stoick shook his head.

"Well, that's true, you aren't married…" Hiccup stared at his father blankly. "Speaking of that, when are you planning on proposing?" His mother seemed to be holding back laughter. "Val and I were already having you by the time we'd been together as long as you two have been!"

"Y-yeah, wow, I honestly think I have no idea what- what you're talking about?" Hiccup lied, cheeks flushed red. How had his dad even figured that out? Externally, he probably looked calm, but internally he was panicking. Externally, he was also shoving a piece of bread down his throat though, so maybe he didn't look as calm as he thought he did.

"Aran told me everything at the sanctuary." Stoick's voice went darker.

"Oh, gods, dad, I am so sorry, I meant to tell you, but-"

"I'm disappointed, son." Hiccup shrank back, preparing himself for the verbal blow and avoiding his father's harsh stare. "I need to know when to plan the wedding!" What.

"What." Valka starting laughing. "What?"

"Oh, Stoick, you couldn't have set that up better?"

"What? Boy's been holding out on me! By the time I knew you for two years we were already married and taking care of this lad!"

"Oh my gods." Hiccup was both confused and mortified.

"So? When are you proposing?" Stoick prompted, and Hiccup gave him an awkward smile.

"Ah, well, you see, I really wasn't planning on doing that. Ever." Maybe in his dreams, but it had never seemed like a realistic course of action.

"I want grandchildren before I'm sixty, Hiccup!"

"Aaaand, I'm leaving."

Hiccup rushed to his room, planning on leaving through the window to avoid any further interaction with his father. That certainly hadn't been the conversation he'd been expecting to have, and now that he was in his room, he'd forgotten what it was he'd come home for. Deciding it wasn't really important, Hiccup began gathering random assortments of easy to carry things, such as his few changes of clothes and some books. He put them in a bag before making his way back to Aran's house. Checking the bed showed that his boyfriend was still asleep, and Hiccup smiled before looking through Aran's bookshelf, straightening things up. A yawn sounded from the bed, and Hiccup turned to see Aran stretching lazily. He smiled.

"Morning, Princess." Aran stuck his tongue out.

"Only Astrid calls me that."

"Well, maybe I call you that when you sleep in too late." He took a step back to observe his work.

"What are you doing to my books?" Hiccup shrugged as Aran dragged himself out of bed to lean most of his bodyweight on him.

"Organizing them." Aran hummed slightly as he inspected his work.

"I guess I've been meaning to do that for a while. Thanks, Hic." He kissed the exposed bit of skin that connected his neck and shoulder. "You didn't have to, though." Hiccup turned around, resting his hands on his boyfriend's hips.

"To be fair, I did it for myself." Aran blinked at him. "I kind of impulsively decided to start moving in."

"Oh?" He was now more awake. "What about your dad?"

"He… kind of knows about us." Aran gave him a look of bewilderment. "Hey, don't give me that look, you're the one who told him."

"I did what!?" Before he could panic, Hiccup grabbed his shoulders firmly.

"He brought it up and asked when I was planning on proposing, Aran. I don't think he's angry." Aran seemed surprised, though he supposed that was a reasonable response.

"Wow. Go concussed me?" Hiccup laughed, leaning down to kiss him.

"Go concussed you."

"Okay, wait, but seriously, when are you planning to propose?" Hiccup raised a brow at him.

"Uhh, Aran, will you marry me?"

"What."

"What?"

"No… No getting down on one knee? No speech? No ring? No… anything?" He seemed shocked.

"Do people do that…?"

"Oh my god. I'm marrying a savage."

After a moment of complete and utter confusion from Hiccup, Aran explained that in Ireland, a marriage proposal was kind of a much bigger deal and usually involved rings. Hiccup smiled awkwardly, stating that up until very recently, all the weddings on Berk had been arranged by parents in order to form alliances between families and the like, and the wedding rings were involved in the ceremony, not the proposal. They didn't have much in the ways of traditional proposals, and he recalled that his father's generation was actually the first to start choosing their own spouses. This was evident in the fact that when Stoick met Valka when he was around thirty, he was still single and childless. Hiccup remembered his now deceased grandfather on his mother's side, Old Wrinkly, hadn't been the one to choose his wife. If he remembered correctly, he grew to love her, but that could have all been a construct of his eight year old imagination. They continued discussing the major differences between Viking and Christian marriages ("You sacrifice live animals!?" "You don't?") for quite some time, just sitting on Aran's bed.

"Vikings are fucking weird." Aran stated. "Animal sacrifices…" He shuddered. "I mean, we used to do that, but that was hundreds of years ago, and I don't remember if that had anything to do with marriages."

"I think it's weirder that you don't do it. It kind of makes me anxious, honestly. How else do you know your gods-"

"God."

"Right, sorry, God. How do you know your God is going to bless your marriage?" Aran looked at him weirdly.

"He just will. And if he doesn't, that means you were probably a bad match." Aran shrugged. "God knows best or something." Hiccup groaned.

"Don't even get me started on that unconditional faith thing. If we sacrifice ten yaks and get terrible harvests, we're not about to pray to that god anymore." Aran squinted at him.

"Rude." Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"More like he's rude. Ten yaks is a lot!" Aran laughed, and Hiccup joined him soon after. "How- how did we even start talking about that?"

"It all started with your shitty marriage proposal." Aran said, almost dreamlike. He giggled afterwards, then all humor left him. "Oh my god, we're getting married."

"... Wow."

The two of them sat there for a while, not having fully registered what they were talking about until that very moment. They then laughed nervously, feeling about ten years younger than they actually were as their cheeks flushed red. Hiccup leaned down to give him a soft kiss, and Aran returned it just as softly. Afterwards, Hiccup cleared his throat, looking away from Aran and stating that he wanted to go work on something in the forge. Aran only nodded, not really wanting to follow him at that moment. It was rather impulsively that he began to write a note to his boyfriend (fiancé?) informing him that he would be taking a quick visit to his hometown, but he thought his parents had a right to know about their apparent engagement as soon as possible! Satisfied that his note was good enough, Aran left the parchment on the bed and went outside to search for Méaróg. They hadn't been flying much together, as Aran knew he was still supposed to be recovering, but he felt dizzy just thinking about the fact that they were actually getting married, and what better way to spend his sudden (anxious) burst of energy than visiting his parents? Besides, if Hiccup thought he was getting out of having a traditional Christian wedding, he had another thing coming. Aran needed to start thinking about wedding rings.

Word Count: 4,072

umm shoutout to Nightfurylov3r for being the only reviewer on the past three chapters? Damn, I posted three chapters in one day/night and almost killed Aran off, I was expecting a little more lmao. It's fine though, I'm sure you guys have better things to do than review. I waited a week to post this mainly because I wanted to keep you in suspense but now I'm not completely sure if like? you guys were in suspense at all? because I got no feedback? I dunno

Marriage is a time. I'd like to inform you lovely readers that I am researching viking weddings and figuring out what to write for that chapter, but it's not happening just yet. I'm also not completely sure if I'll write the more Christian wedding bc like, everyone knows what a Christian wedding is like because of pop culture. If Christian weddings were completely different back then tho, I will 100% write the Christian wedding tho!

Also I constantly worry that everyone is OOC so like please tell me if you think so and if it's really something I didn't realize makes no sense I will fix it.