The response to last chapter was just... wonderful!
-HTTYD-
The day had not gotten any less awkward an hour later, Hiccup noted to himself. Astrid was still visibly tense, even as she hugged Heather goodbye and they watched Henry give Heather some drooly goodbye kisses, clinging to her neck affectionately.
"Bye little man, I'll see you soon. Call if you need me, yeah?"
Heather was obviously reluctant to leave Astrid with the two of them, obviously seeing the tension in her friend, but she had to get going and Astrid had insisted (in the next room, but they'd heard all the same) that she could go. Henry stayed quite content in his mothers arms as they walked Heather to the door, waving goodbye before he turned back to cuddling Astrid. Hiccup wished dearly to be hugging his son again, but wasn't going to push Astrid. Or Henry, for that matter. They were still strangers to the boy.
Hiccup hoped Astrid was willing to let them change that.
"Want to go play with Hiccup and Eret?"
She asked Henry, who thought about it before he nodded. Astrid put him down and he toddled over to them, and they were only too happy to join the boy back on the floor to play. Astrid watched on in silence, only making a sound whenever Henry turned to show her the toy he was holding, to which she always gave some response. Henry clearly never wanted for attention from her, and it was an absolute joy to both he and Eret to watch Henry giggle and smile at Astrid.
"I wasn't really prepared for guests and you turned up before I had time to go shopping. So I can't feed you."
Hiccup wondered if that was a strong hint Astrid actually wanted them to leave, but when Eret hesitantly suggested they order something in, Astrid seemed agreeable enough. Henry decided he needed cuddles from his mother and got up to sit in her lap and stare up at her with adoration in his eyes, so Eret called up the pizza place Astrid had a leaflet for. He halted as he was dialling, then looked over to Astrid.
"You still go for a meat feast with pepper and mushrooms?"
She blinked, as though surprised Eret remembered, but nodded slowly and turned her eyes back to Henry. He was still learning to talk, obviously, but Astrid engaged with his babble-talk as if he were speaking clear English, which appeared to cheer Henry no end as he continued to chatter away to her. Hiccup and Eret sat quietly, watching him, absorbing every minute of their son that they could. After a stream of mostly-unintelligible noises, he let out a very understandable yawn.
"Sleepy, baby boy?"
Henry shuffled and burrowed his head into Astrid's chest, yawning again. Smiling softly at him, Astrid stood with him in her arms.
"Just gonna put him down for a nap."
It seemed like Henry was already asleep before they even left the room, and Hiccup's heart ached for how sweet a picture they made, Astrid smiling and Henry sleeping. While Astrid was in the other room, there was a knock at the door. Eret jumped up to open it quickly, commenting that he didn't want them to wake Henry. It turned out to be their food delivery, and Eret had exchanged money for two flat boxes and a bag of sides before Astrid came back. When she saw the delivery had arrived, she had the correct change for her own food.
"I don't need it."
"And I don't need you to pay for my food."
Hiccup threw his brother a look, and Eret relented. Astrid had always been independent, and raising their son alone wouldn't have done anything to lessen that, and they didn't want to piss her off when things were so very tenuous with her already.
"Alright."
Chewing and swallowing worked to fill the awkward silence for a while, though Hiccup was half-expecting Astrid to tell them to leave any minute, since they were there to see Henry and Henry was asleep.
"If I eat any more, I'm going to explode!"
Eret declared as he wiped his mouth, using baby wipes he'd found on the side while Astrid left to wash her hands. Hiccup couldn't fight a smile at his brothers dramatics, glad not even the serious situation could truly subdue Eret. Admitting defeat himself, Hiccup finished the slice in his hand and took a couple of wipes from Eret to clean himself up with, taking a swig from the can of pop he'd gotten with their food.
"Yeah. Good pizza though."
"Definitely."
Astrid went right from the bathroom to (presumably) check on Henry, while Hiccup and Eret just looked at each other quietly, waiting.
"Gee, thanks Henry. Love you too."
Her words were followed by giggles from Henry, and groans from Astrid before she came out a few minutes later holding Henry, who was wearing different clothes to before.
"Watch him for a minute, I need to get his clothes in the wash. You, mister" she tapped Henry on the nose "try not to make a mess, those are the last clothes you have that fit!"
Henry merely continued to giggle as he was deposited on the floor. Astrid looked a little hesitant to leave him there, but went about retrieving soiled clothes from her room and crossing over to the kitchen. Henry rolled around on the floor before he crawled over to Hiccup, sitting up to chew on his fist.
"Hi!"
"Hi there."
Henry smiled around the hand in his mouth, occasionally pouting when he caught his hand with a tooth, but it didn't dissaude him from chewing on it more.
"Uh, Astrid? Does he have something for teething?"
Hiccup asked, worried Henry was going to hurt himself. Astrid's head reappeared from the kitchen, and she tossed something in their direction. Eret managed to catch it, and they realised it was a teething ring.
"Fresh out the fridge, he should be happy."
Sure enough, Henry was ecstatic with the teething ring, and began gnawing on it eagerly.
"That better?"
"Yeah!"
Hiccup smiled, bouyed by his son's energy. Astrid finally came out of the kitchen, and sat back down on the sofa to watch Henry.
"We can buy him clothes, if you need us to."
Eret offered, but Astrid baulked.
"No. We're fine. There's just no point in buying a lot of clothes for him in any age group, he grows out of them. He'll be in clothes for two year olds by next month at this rate."
"I'm just saying-"
Astrid cut him off, the effort to keep her voice even clear.
"Well, don't. You don't just get to turn up and act like I need saving from single parenthood. We're fine for money, I just don't see the point in wasting it on clothes he'll only wear for about a week and a half."
Eret fell silent, but Hiccup could see it was tough for him. He kept his eyes on Henry, as though reminding himself why he needed to keep his cool. Hiccup watched Henry decide he wanted Astrid back, and managed to pull himself up with a one handed grip on the table before tottering over to his mother.
"Mama!"
"Hi baby boy, what's up?"
"Up!"
He lifted his arms, and Astrid pulled him up into her lap. Satisfied he'd gotten his way, Henry settled down.
"You're right. But we want to be involved in his life. If we'd been able to be involved sooner, we would have been offering to buy him stuff then too. But if you don't want that, we respect that... but will you let us be in his life at all now?"
Face half-hidden in Henry's messy dark hair, Astrid shrugged. Hiccup wanted to insist that they wanted her back in their life too, but he got the feeling Astrid was already too on edge for that sort of conversation, and so he kept conversation focused on their son.
"How?"
"I don't know. Maybe we come by once a week or something?" obviously, he wanted more than a weekly visit, but Hiccup knew baby steps were important here "or you can bring him to us and have a break or something. We can get some kid stuff for our place, and it's a two bed so there's room for us to make a space you're happy to leave him in."
Astrid frowned.
"Whoa, slow down. You can come see him again next week, and we'll take it from there."
Hiccup did his best to reign himself in and calm down, seeing that the concession was a big deal for Astrid. They'd convinced her they wanted nothing to do with a child in the past, so it wasn't really unfair of her to want to take it slow and for them to prove they really wanted to be actively involved in seeing and raising their son.
"Alright, that's fair enough."
Eret answered, and Hiccup added to.
"Thank you."
Those two words didn't really convey how he felt, but it was all he had. Astrid nodded slowly, tightening her arms around Henry when he started to slide off her lap with his wriggling. He really was so cute, Hiccup couldn't believe it!
Actually, with biological parents like Eret and Astrid, maybe he could.
"I am going to have to ask you two to leave soon, I have work to do."
"Work?"
Astrid nodded.
"I work from home. Putting those two years of university to use."
Before they got her pregnant and she dropped out and disappeared. Hiccup didn't say any of that, but he felt like it was hanging in the air.
"Alright. Uh. Should we swap numbers or set a time for next week or something?"
Astrid's brow furrowed in thought, and when Henry saw it he tried to copy it. It was very adorable.
"Same day, not this early next week... ten thirty? And you can leave me your number in case I need to cancel."
Eret scribbled his number down on paper Astrid handed him, then looked hopefully toward Henry. Astrid looked as though she was considering rolling her eyes, but picked Henry up and held him close to the twins.
"Want to say bye to Hiccup and Eret for now?"
"Bye!"
He waved eagerly, but was clearly too content where he was to move from Astrid's hold.
"See you next week then?"
Astrid nodded.
"Yeah. See you then."
Unsurprisingly, Henry took about an hour and a half after Hiccup and Eret left to make a mess of his clothes. So Astrid gave up and plopped him down in just his nappy, because Henry liked to watch the washing machine spin and Astrid was glad for something that kept him occupied for a good five or ten minutes even if she almost tripped over him as she tried to move around the little kitchen.
Some of his other clothes were about dry, but Astrid was planning on giving him a bath that day anyway, so she left him in his nappy and sat him on a towel so the kitchen floor wouldn't make him cold. He was thrilled, pacifier in his mouth and washing machine for entertainment. Astrid smiled at how cute he was when he wanted to be, and leant against the side to text Heather. On break at work, Heather opted to ring her back instead of texting.
"So, how did it go?"
"Well, I was very uncomfortable, but they asked if they can come see him again next week. Gives me a few days to process, at least."
Heather hummed, thinking to herself. Henry shuffled a bit closer on his butt, but otherwise stayed engrossed in the whirl of clothes he'd gotten covered in pureed vegetables. Giving him a bib was useless - he managed to get it everywhere.
"Surprised you agreed."
"Honestly, so am I. But unless I want to go through getting a new name, number and home address, they know where I am now and I doubt I can physically keep them away. Besides, it's not about me. It's about what's best for Henry. I have to give them a chance for his sake, if they really want to be part of his life."
"I guess. They are good guys, I can't imagine they'll be a bad influence on him. But you need to be able to cope, cus Henry's gonna notice if you're always sad when they're around."
Astrid sighed, forcing a reassuring smile on to her face when Henry turned at the sound of her sigh.
"Yeah, I know. I'm sure I'll get used to it. I did live with them just fine for the better part of two decades before it all went to shit."
"Language!"
Heather chided, much as Astrid did to her whenever she (or Cami... it was mostly Cami) swore in front of Henry ever since he started learning to talk.
"Yeah, I don't think he noticed. He's watching the washing machine."
"Ah, his favourite show! I better get going if I want to eat before I have to get back to work. I'll come see you tomorrow if you want?"
"Sounds good. See you then."
"Give Henry a kiss from me!"
Chuckling, Astrid assured her friend she would do so.
"I will."
Once they'd hung up, Astrid headed over to Henry. He was disgruntled about not getting to watch the machine any longer, but he did like to splash about in the bath, so Astrid managed to convince him. Scrubbing food and gods only knew what else off of him, Astrid tickled his pudgy little belly and laughed as he squealed and kicked. The bathroom got soaked whether she did that or not. Henry really liked splashing. Especially splashing her, because he seemed to think his mama looked hilarious with her hair plastered to her face and water all down her shirt.
"Little terror. Mama loves you baby boy."
Astrid murmured as she kissed his hair when he was towel dried and re-dressed. Henry gurgled happily before he went to play with his toys, reminding Astrid of earlier when Hiccup and Eret were sat there with him. Henry had seemed to like them well enough, so she had no real reason to bar them from his life. And it had been good to see them... even if it was equal parts awkward too, just to know how they were doing after nearly two years without seeing or speaking to each other.
And even if it was difficult for her, she had to do what was best for her... their son.
-HTTYD-
To reassure you all, Astrid got lots of Henry cuddles after this chapter. Lots and lots!