I can't believe this hit 40 chapters already! I mean, half of it was just useless idiot pining.
Also! While we're here. After I finish Changed (which isn't yet, obviously) I'm thinking of writing a story with Mala/Valka/Eret in. Anyone interested?
-HTTYD-
Valka had known it wasn't going to be easy, especially when Berk was in such an emotionally fraught state after Drago's attack and the loss of Stoick. And she could take the stares, the murmurs, the outright death-glares when Eret held her hand anywhere vaguely public.
But it was putting more pressure on Hiccup, who insistently defended his mother and her lover whenever he caught such things occurring.
She and Eret spent most of their time among the dragons, taking care of Alva so Tripfire could stretch her wings or catch some dinner, or helping treat the wounded and comfort the orphaned. They were used to sleeping on the go, so they were in no rush to have a roof over their heads before anybody else. Hiccup said they could stay in the Chief's hut with him - that was rebuilt first, despite his protests - but accepted that both Valka and Eret found it too disconcerting to sleep together in the same room Stoick had slept.
"I guess you guys need somewhere with space for Stormcutters too, huh?"
Hiccup asked as he climbed the hill to where they were spending much of their time, Eret currently checking the healing of Alva's wound to see if she needed fresh stitches.
"If that's possible, then yes. We're rather used to living with them on top of us. Literally, some mornings with the youngest."
He chuckled, seeing how Storm immediately wriggled over to flop his big head on Valka's lap, chirping until she stroked along his horned crown.
"Yeah, I see what you mean. I don't know if we can build something big enouogh, but there is a big, old hut up there" Hiccup pointed up and west "with a lot of outdoor space. I think it survived the ice, actually. Needs doing up as the woods a little aged in places, but it's yours if you guys want it."
"Isn't that Mildew's hut?"
"How... oh right, he'd have been around when you were here. Yeah, it's his, but he moved out to Outcast Island years ago. That's why the hut is in disrepair. Nobody wanted to move up there, but some dragons sleep up there. I didn't think you'd mind that all that much."
She felt a smile cross her face.
"No, dragon neighbours don't bother me. I doubt Eret will mind either way. And perhaps it would be easier on the village if we're... out of sight more for a while."
Hiccup sighed, moving to sit on Valka's dragon-free side.
"I'm sorry people are giving you guys a hard time. But I'm Chief now, and while it's a position I didn't really wanna take, it does mean it's up to me whether or not you get to stay here with Eret. Although..."
"Although what?"
Hiccup chewed his lip, glancing over at Eret, then back at her.
"You're pregnant. Don't you think you guys should be thinking about, you know, tying the knot?"
If Valka hadn't been sitting down, she thought she might have fallen over, because that had come rather out of the blue.
"Oh. I... I hadn't even thought of that."
"Yeah. I'm not gonna force you, since Eret's from a faraway land and has his own gods and all" that was quite a large statement from Hiccup, to acknowledge anothers faith and allow him the freedom of it "and I don't know how his people are about babies and marriage. Just something to think about."
"What are we thinking about?"
Eret asked as he came back over, Junior immediately demanding his attention now he was done with Alva.
"Oh. Uh. You wanna tell him mom?"
She nodded, and Hiccup leant over to hug her before he moved to get up.
"Need a hand?"
Eret offered, hand extended to help Hiccup to his feet. Hiccup blinked in surprise, but took it, lifted effortlessly by Eret's strength to an upright position.
"Oh. Thanks."
He shrugged, offered Hiccup a tight smile.
"I've sailed with peg legs before, I know the ground can be your enemy."
Hiccup nodded, awkward silence rearing its ugly head. Time, Valka reminded herself. They needed time to adjust to one another.
"I better get going, got a meeting later and I want to make sure my betrothed remembers what I look like."
He took off on Toothless, leaving Eret to raise a curious eyebrow at Valka.
"So, what were you talking about?"
"Oh. Hiccup was just asking whether or not we had thought about... marriage."
Eret opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, turning to look at Hiccup's retreating form and back again.
"Oh. Uh. Why?"
"Traditionally, here on Berk, we don't have babies out of wedlock. However, Hiccup acknowledges that our ways are not yours, and so the choice is ours, as it were."
Valka sincerely hoped Eret's reaction was one of shock, not dismay. After everything, him saying he had no desire to marry her would be a hefty blow. It hadn't seemed like such an issue before, when they were feral dragon rescuers who were unlikely to ever even have a child to consider wedlock an issue for.
But now she was pregnant, and they were putting down roots, settling down...
"Yes! Yes!"
Eret's exclamation pulled Valka from her thoughts, eyes wide and eager.
"What?"
"Yes! Of course I'd marry you. If... well, if you want to."
It was no romantic, grand proposal, but Valka didn't need any of that. She just needed to know Eret loved her, wanted to be married to her. And he was making that perfectly clear with his earnest words and hopeful eyes.
"Of course I do."
Eret visibly sagged with relief, dropping to his knees next to her, hand sliding over her cheek as he kissed her.
"Was that all he came to talk about?"
A little dazed by the whole marriage-and-kiss-thing, Valka took a minute to think.
"Oh. No. He'd also thought of somewhere we can move in to where the dragons will fit outside, if not inside."
"Huh. Where?"
After letting the others know they'd only be a minute or two, Valka and Eret climbed up on Cloudjumper's back and he flew them up to the spot Hiccup had pointed out.
"Wow. Roomy field."
"It was Mildew's personal farm. He left the island some years ago, so we'd have to repair the hut as it's been left alone a while. But Hiccup said it's ours if we want it."
Eret nodded to himself, taking a look around before he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled Valka to him, smile obvious even as he kissed her temple.
"I'm happy wherever you are."
Eret wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand, Tripfire hovering nearby to helpfully move wood up to him. The roof had holes in, parts of it half-rotten with moisture and time and neglect. Still, it wasn't terrible work, and it was to be his and Valka's new home. So, it was more than worth it.
"Thanks girl. Almost done."
If he looked down to the ground, he could see Valka clearing out 'Mildew's' old things, and Alva and Vali chasing their little brothers around the weed-covered farmland under Cloudjumper's supervision. They'd work on that next, but it made more sense to make the hut itself livable before worrying about the outside.
When Valka twisted around to look up at him with a bright smile, Eret felt his heart flutter. They were betrothed! It had happened sort of suddenly, because they'd gotten so used to their little nest with no other people that traditions like marriage before children seemed worlds away before Hiccup went and brought it up. Though admittedly, Eret did find it weird that Hiccup had been suggesting his mother marry Eret when the Chief had yet to exchange more than a sentence or two with him. He hoped they might have reached a full conversation before any wedding actually occurred.
Tripfire picked him up with her claw and dropped him down (gently) to the ground when he was done, saving him having to climb down. Valka laughed when he flopped down on the ground, groaning.
"You'll get all dirty!"
"I need a bath anyway, I'm really sweaty. And I still gotta put waterproof stuff on the top, but at least the roof is there."
Most of the interior was stone, basically a wooden structure built over something cut in to the rocky mountainside. It meant a lot less things that could be set on fire, which was good given how many dragons they lived with.
"Why does it reek of sheep in there so bad?"
"Mildew had a pet sheep... I think it was called Fungus, who apparently lasted longer than any of his three wives."
Eret wrinkled his nose.
"I'm sorry I asked."
Valka giggled at his disgust, patting him affectionately when Eret clambered up to his feet.
"I'm gonna eat something, do the rest of the roof and then take a bath, which will then be rendered entirely pointless by dragon kisses later."
"That's nothing new though."
Valka reasoned, still smiling. Gods, he loved her smile.
"True. How are you feeling? Don't give me that look, you said yourself you got sick a lot when you were pregnant with Hiccup."
Her scowl lessened, though she did still roll her eyes.
"I feel fine. Except that you smell terrible."
Well, he had asked.
"Fair enough. Well, I'm gonna eat and finish my work, then I will be fresh again."
"Good!"
She chuckled as he turned away, shooing Vali from investigating the bag he'd put dried meat and bread in, Valka kindly braving his odorous self to bring him water before walking away dramatically holding her nose.
"Rude!"
He heard her laugh, smiling in turn. Berk wasn't quite welcoming them with open arms, and he knew that bothered Valka more than she let on, because it meant stress for her son, who was still juggling chiefdom and the loss of his father on top of finding his lost mother alive and well, pregnant and in love with another man.
The fact they were up out of the way wasn't entirely lost on Eret, meaning nobody from the village had to see their shared home without intentionally coming to look for it. They did still have to go down in to the main square though. Mostly, they were perfectly cordial to Valka if she was alone, or with Hiccup, because she was one of them, and they felt guilty for not believing her about dragons and wanted to pick her brains for knowledge.
Eret was the ex trapper, with the Dragon Hunters mark on his chest and what they considered Stoick's place in Valka's life.
He waited until it was Berk's dinner time to head down to the bathing area, thankfully empty and left him to clean up in peace. Or so he thought.
"Oh, whoops!"
Not particularly shy, Eret ascertained it wasn't a child who'd walked in before continuing to dry and dress with no rush. He was too sore to move quickly anyway.
"Uh... Gobber, right?"
"Aye."
Gobber was looking a little more closely than Eret expected, but since Eret hadn't exactly limited himself to women-only in his days before Valka, he wasn't going to judge. Or out the man. He was used to being checked out anyway.
"So uh, you want the baths?"
"Ah, no. I saw ye come in and thought I'd come ask if you could spare a hook- ah, hand."
His muscles ached, but Eret wasn't going to say no to offering help anyway.
"Sure. What do you need?"
Gobber looked marginally disappointed when Eret was clothed again, but gestured for him to follow. He wondered if Valka knew, as she'd known Gobber well enough to be content with him raising Hiccup when they thought Stoick had died years ago. If she did, Eret thought she'd get a giggle out of him eyeing Eret up.
He followed Gobber to the forge, and helped out with moving some things around - Gobber seemed mostly used to adapting around his prosthetic, but he did lack some fine dexterity with only one moveable hand. His Hotburple, Grump, snored away in the corner. Valka called Hotburples 'the Gronckle's lazy cousin', which definitely seemed apt. They were unique though, in that they could bite through and digest the dragon-resistant metal that hunters had invented. Unfortunately, their sleepy, trusting nature meant that hunters had done well in reducing their numbers. Grump was a positive sign to Eret.
"Thanks lad. I know Berk's not giving you and Val an easy time, but they're just smartin' from Stoick's death."
"Shouldn't you be on their side? He was your best friend, from what I heard."
Eret hadn't meant to say that out loud, but thankfully, Gobber didn't seem to take it the wrong way.
"Aye. And that means I was around when he and Val were married. I saw them fight. I used to be the one who took Hiccup for a couple o' hours when the screaming matches went on. More importantly, I know Stoick wouldn't have wanted Val to be alone and miserable without him. You make her happy, and so long as you treat her right... you're alright in my books."
Eret nodded, Gobber patting him on the shoulder with his non-wooden hand. He hadn't been doing great on the 'treat her right' part recently, but he was doing his best to make up for it.
"Uh. Thanks. Hiccup doesn't know about that though, right? The fighting, I mean?"
"I doubt it. Stoick always put a shine on their marriage when Hiccup was a boy, cus he didn't want to speak ill of the dead and all. By the time Hiccup was growing up, they butted heads too much for Val to come up much."
"Well, he won't hear it from me."
Gobber nodded, then waved Eret off.
"Thanks for the help laddie."
"Any time. I better get back though, I promised Alva I'd see if she was ready to fly again this evening."
"She doing alright then? That's good."
The climb back up wasn't great fun when he was aching all over, but Eret felt a little bolstered by the support from Gobber, someone as close to Stoick as could be (Eret wondered...) and still supportive of he and Valka.
Alva fussed and wriggled as Eret checked her wound, grumbling when he pressed at the newly formed scar.
"I have to check you won't just bust it open again... alright. Just a circle around the farm, then come down and I'll check again."
Stir crazy by then, Alva leapt up in to the air, wings spreading as she twirled around in the most dramatic 'circle around the farm' flight possible, before tumbling to the ground next to Eret with happiness clear on her features. He checked her over, and was gratified she'd not hurt herself.
"Alright, you can go flying, but take Vali with you and don't go crazy, alright? Vali, if she has to stop, come get me ok?"
The older Stormcutter children both warbled agreement, licked him and took off flying. Eret wiped his face and smiled after them fondly, hearing Alva roaring joyfully at being back in the air. He heard the sound of wings behind him, turned to see Valka climbing down from Cloudjumper's back. She crossed over to where he was standing, lacing their fingers together as they watched Alva and Vali - Vali much easier to spot, with his bright colours - zip through the sky.
"She's back to her usual self then?"
"Yep."
Valka's head rested against his shoulder, a soft sound of contentment leaving her lips.
"That's good."
-HTTYD-
Just cus they're not dating doesn't mean Eret and Gobber can't be buddies right? :)