All three of us have had A Lot going on lately, but we did have talks about this chapter and they were fun.

-HTTYD-

Even though he knew they hadn't really gone far, Eret still had a flickering panic as the door closed behind Astrid and Henry. Panic that they were about to vanish again when the twins had just found them. He suppressed the panic somewhat by reminding himself that Astrid didn't live on the ground floor, had no way of leaving her little flat without having to walk past them.

A heavy silence fell for a good minute, only the occasional muffled thud from where Astrid and Henry were.

Gods, that was their son!

He was so beautiful it made Eret's heart ache. And Astrid... Eret's feelings were still conflicted there. A mix of relief and pain and love and anger surged through him when he looked at her, the pain of a year and a half with no news, over a year of their son's life missed.

"How could you have known where she was all along and not told us?"

Hiccup asked, his voice cracking occasionally and Eret could hear how his brother was halfway to tears. Heather frowned, arms crossed over her chest.

"I didn't."

"Didn't what?"

"Know all along. When I told you about the phone call, I knew just as much as you."

"Then how do you explain all this?" Eret gestured broadly to Astrid's living room "Henry clearly knows you, and mom said you'd been around to help. So... how long have you known?"

Heather's frown deepened slightly as she shifted her weight from one leg to the other. It was a similar habit to Astrid, a sign their sister was uncomfortable.

"Since Henry was born. Astrid called me from the hospital when she was in labour."

Her face shifted to something of a smile, but Eret was still stuck on the fact she'd known Henry for his whole life.

"So you've known for a whole year, and said nothing to us?"

"Don't put this on me! You finished university and I had no way to get hold of you, for starters. Besides..."

"Besides what?"

Heather sucked in a deep breath.

"Astrid didn't want you there. Here. And honestly, I didn't blame her."

"What?"

A hand on his arm got Eret's attention, and he turned to see Hiccup looking at him pleadingly.

"Calm down, please?"

Eret closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to let the ire leech out of him.

"Alright. Calm. Why didn't you... what did we do?"

"When I told you about the baby, you were more interested in Astrid. So, as far as I knew, you weren't that set on parenthood. And when I finally spoke to Astrid, she said preeeetty much the same thing. She didn't want to burden you with it. And it wasn't my place to meddle anyway. I'm just here to help Astrid, and nothing else."

As upset as he still was, Eret forced himself to look back on those moments. While he felt it was unfair to judge them based on the incredible shock of Astrid's admission just as their parents discovered the illicit sexual antics of their three children, maybe Heather had a point. They hadn't pressed her all that hard for details of the baby, they'd been frantic for any information that related to Astrid at all.

He was saved the trouble of coming up with an answer for her by the sound of the door opening, a little giggle from Henry preceding Astrid's entrance in to the room. Heather turned toward her, and the two exchanged a nod before Heather headed toward Astrid, squeezing her arm as she passed before they heard Henry and Heather greet each other, followed by the door closing behind them.

It left the two of them alone with Astrid. She was braiding her hair over one shoulder, which gave her a great excuse not to look at either of them. Hiccup looked at him again, his fingers lacing through Eret's and giving him a reassuring squeeze of the hand. It was what he needed, a steadying anchor for his tumultuous emotions. Even that wasn't long enough of a delay for Astrid, who mumbled something about water and headed toward the kitchen. She returned with a glass to sip from.

"Drink?"

"Uh, no. Thanks."

Astrid glanced over at them, then dropped her gaze and dropped in to a seat, placing her glass down on the table in front of her.

"So... what do you want? What are you doing here?"

Eret was quite sure he and his brother had twin looks of incredulity on their faces.

"What do we want? Do you have any idea how long we've been looking for you?"

Astrid frowned, shrugging.

"No? We haven't spoken in well over a year. How would I know that?"

"And whose choice was that?"

She recoiled, and Eret felt his ire vanish when he saw the way she wrapped an arm around herself. He remembered that exact pose from when she was slumped on their bathroom floor, terrified as their... as Eret Sr demanded to know who'd gotten her pregnant. And she'd ran off too soon, didn't see them try to go after her only to be stopped by their father. Gods, if Eret could go back and do that moment over, he'd have physically removed the obstacle of Eret Sr and ran after Astrid.

Hel, he wished they could change a lot of things. There were things they should have done, should have said...

"Astrid, are you afraid of us?"

Hiccup asked, and Eret could see why. She was so tense, and so clearly didn't want to have the conversation she was in at all.

"Did you just come here to yell at me? Cus if you did, you can leave. I don't want that around my son."

Astrid kept her arm around herself, kept from really meeting their eye. Hiccup nodded slowly, swallowing heavily before he spoke.

"She's right. Sorry. This is just a pretty overwhelming thing for us. We've been trying to find you ever since you ran off, and we'd started to give up. When mom said she needed to see us, we were worried something had really blown up back home for her. Never even occurred to us you'd been in touch."

"Yeah right. And that was an accident involving my first alcohol in over a year. Too drunk to remember to block my number, not drunk enough to be unable to make phone calls. Then she wouldn't leave me alone until I agreed to see her."

Her tone spoke volumes more than her words - Astrid really didn't believe they'd been looking for her.

"How long ago did mom see you?"

"Uh... a week, I think. When did she tell you?"

"Last night. She called us in front of dad, so I guess he knows too."

It had been many, many months since he'd seen her face, but Eret could still recognise the pain in her features at the mention of their father.

"He doesn't care."

"You don't know that."

"Oh, I do."

Astrid got up and crossed the room, opening a desk drawer and fiddling with something. When she turned around, he realised she was holding her phone. Well, her old phone, if the one on the table didn't belong to Heather.

"Astrid, love, please just let me know you're alright. Please."

"That better not be Astrid you're calling!"

Their mothers worried pleading followed by their fathers angry admonishment, preserved in the crackling electronic sounds of an answerphone message.

"And when mother dearest came to see me, she told me how he doesn't even know she's in touch with you. Though I guess he does now. I think if he'd suddenly have had a change of heart, he would have come with you. Or at least called me himself. So don't tell me I don't know if he cares or not."

Hiccup and Eret shared a look.

"Yeah. Dad's still not so keen on us either. Mom said he tried to talk her out of coming to tell us, and she'd been hiding that she was in touch with us at all until last night."

Astrid didn't respond to Eret's words other than to drink some water, so Hiccup picked up.

"But we really have been looking for you. You and... Henry."

The name still sounded new on their tongue, having not even known his name until some twelve or so hours ago.

"Why?"

Astrid asked, still looking genuinely convinced they hadn't been so frantic to find her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you didn't want a family. You said so yourselves."

Before they could answer, there was the sound of a door opening, followed by Heather calling out to Astrid.

"Hey Astrid, can you come here?"

"Sure."

Seeming quite happy to have the escape, Astrid headed off and left the twins behind. They looked at each other, acknowledging that Astrid wasn't wrong. It had been explicitly stated back when Astrid first started spending time in their bed. Just sex, nothing more. And, while Hiccup was more certain of it than Eret, they had wondered if that sexual relationship had all become too much. Astrid had pulled away from them after that night in their parents home. Which was somewhere Astrid had already said she wasn't that comfortable doing anything in, even if their parents weren't home. He remembered she'd turned up with that lace lingerie, could still see the ribbons coming apart to...

He dragged his mind from the gutter, because that was not somewhere his thoughts needed to stray. But Astrid had been off, that night. There had been some strange tension in her for days, something that seemed to spill over to the new year and had her pull so far away from them...

As upset as he was, Eret knew there were clearly reasons, at least in Astrid's mind, that could be seen as her thinking they wouldn't have been interested in something like a baby. And that was without the fact that her pregnancy was the outing of their relationship, and evidence of their illegal activities.

"Alright baby boy, calm down. Come on, there's some people mama wants you to meet."

"Mama!"

Eret felt his heart leap up into his throat at the sound of the little boys voice, and sure enough Astrid reappeared with the boy in her arms seconds later. He had that cushion in his arms still, chewing on the corner of it. Was he teething? Eret wasn't even sure when that happened. They were going to need to learn about kids...

Assuming Astrid didn't just disappear again. He bit back a sigh - yes, he was upset, they both were, but scaring Astrid off (again) was the worst idea possible if they wanted a chance to get to know their son.

"Hey Eret, didn't you lose your Jonsi t-shirt?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Look at what he's holding."

He squinted, but between Henry's chubby hands was indeed the logo of Eret's missing t-shirt.

"Did you steal my shirt?"

Astrid looked a bit sheepish as she hiked Henry up to hold him more securely.

"Yes. I used my key to get in to your flat because I had to steal your hair for the paternity test Heather made me take" now Heather, who was fully dressed and hovering nearby, looked a little sheepish "and I spilled water on my shirt when I was washing my hands. I needed something to wear, it was there on the chair."

"So you made it in to a pillow?"

She shrugged as best she could.

"I wanted Henry to have something of yours. This seemed easier."

He peered over said cushion, letting the soggy, fraying corner he'd been chewing on fall from his mouth to stare at them. Astrid gestured with her head for them to come closer, though Eret saw her shoulders tense up more with every step they took.

"Henry, this is Hiccup, and this is Eret. Want to say hi?"

"Hi!"

Henry lifted a hand to give a little wave, pouting when he then dropped his cushion. Hiccup bent down to get it, holding it out to the boy.

"Here you go little guy."

The gap-toothed smile he gave Hiccup just about stole Eret's heart, and Hiccup didn't look as though he was faring any better.

"Hewer?"

Heather seemed to recognise the sound he made as her being summoned, and when she got close enough Henry held out his cushion. She took it carefully, avoiding the corner he seemed to favour gnawing on. Hands free, his little face creased in confusion as he reached a hand out to Eret, huffing as he couldn't quite reach.

"What's he doing?"

Astrid shrugged.

"I think he's trying to work out what's on your face. It's not like he understands tattoos."

"Oh."

Eret leant down a little, and when Henry managed to touch his chin, he squealed happily and started poking the lines inked there.

"Can we hold him?"

"That's up to Henry. Fair warning, he's teething and drools everywhere. And occasionally bites."

Astrid shifted her grip and held him out to Hiccup, waiting to see if Henry would go for it. He thought about it before holding arms out to Hiccup, who grunted when handed the full weight of the toddler. Their mother had been right - he was big.

"Hi!"

"Hey there."

Eret felt his heart melt when Hiccup smiled down at their son, Henry smiling right back up at him. Heather and Astrid had sat down, Astrid watching them over the rim of her glass.

"He's friendly, huh?"

"Sometimes. Sometimes he'll just throw up on you so you give him back to mama."

Heather appeared to be speaking from experience, judging by her face and Astrid's poorly suppressed snorting.

"He loves you really."

"I know."

Henry became interested in Eret again. Well, Eret's tattoo, but he was reaching out to go to Eret's arms and that was good enough for him. He patted Eret's tattoo again, giggling happily. Eret sat down and perched Henry on his lap. Henry stared at him, and the resemblance really was quite something - the amber eyes were a family trait, and his dark hair didn't quite match Astrid's golden blonde locks. But she was there in his round cheeks, the way his ears stuck out a little. And there was Valka in his face too. Which meant Hiccup was in his face. Somehow, their baby had come out looking like all three of them.

Henry got bored of sitting on his lap after a minute or two, wriggling free and dropping to the floor. He turned and tugged at Eret's trouser leg, free hand pointing at some toys on the floor.

"You want me to come play?"

The boy nodded, waiting until he saw Eret move to let go. Eret looked to Astrid for permission. She nodded, and Hiccup followed, both sitting on the floor to have toys pressed upon them by Henry. He seemed quite content to invent the whole 'game' he was playing all by himself, but Eret could have happily sat there watching him giggle and bounce around excitedly for hours.

Alas, Henry had other ideas, using Hiccup's knee as a support to haul himself to his feet before toddling over to Astrid, where he climbed up on to her lap and started pulling at her shirt. Heather laughed; it was obviously a familiar sight by the way they reacted.

"I think someone's hungry."

"He's always hungry. I'm just gonna go feed him."

Heather muttered something that sounded a lot like "nothing they haven't seen before" as Astrid stood up with Henry in her arms, heading back toward her bedroom. Well, Heather wasn't wrong, Eret supposed, but he could see how Astrid might want privacy anyway. Heather's pocket began vibrating, and she excused herself to answer the phone call responsible.

Hiccup shuffled along the floor to be close enough that he could rest his head against Eret's shoulder, letting out a long, deep sigh. Eret knew exactly what it meant, the strange mix of a weight lifted when they found Astrid and met their son, and the new weight of wondering what was going to happen after.

-HTTYD-

Henry finally got to meet his daddies!