Hey all! Whew! I'm back, and this ridiculously long wait deserves an explanation. So, I saw the sequel, and whenever I wanted to write, I was extinguished by my sadness the ending of the sequel, and then I didn't have access to this for two weeks, but then I finally buckled down and got it done! Hooray! To answer an unnamed guest's question, Valka is marrying Stoick. It's a reenactment of their own wedding, and on that note, that's a good reminder of what just happened, so if you've waited this out, thank you SO SO much, and I hope I've satisfied you here. Ideas and requests welcome! And please note that updates may come more regularly now! Read/Review/Enjoy/Criticize!

One-shot Three

"How could you have agreed to this?" Stoick boomed.

Valka patiently folded her hands in front of her face and looked up Stoick after a moment's breather. "It will just be an hour out of our lives and it's only to make the people happy. Besides, I thought you were a romantic."

Stoick looked stunned a moment, then scoffed and rolled his eyes. "I-I just don't see the point, Valka."

Valka turned puppy-eyed at him now. "Oh, please. There'll be drinking…" She thought of Hiccup having his first ale. "There'll be no drinking for Hiccup, just us, there'll be feasting and it will all be done in less than an hour. It's just for the village's sake anyway, it's not like we're inviting any allied tribes or anything."

"Oh, that reminds me, we've been receiving gifts lately. You were settling a dragon skirmish when Trader Johan came and I forgot to tell you until now." Stoick abruptly turned away, clearly away from the conversation. His retreat led him and a stubbornly following Valka to the back closet. When he opened it, piles of paraphernalia tumbled out and his wife gasped. Stoick picked up one of the trinkets and read the label, making sure his voice had exaggerated thrill. "The chief of the Miscreants sends us a…I think it's some kind of bowl, on the occasion of our reunion. And the chief of the Warheads has graciously given us a hammer and an axe for the occasion of our reunion…"

"I get the message," Valka interrupted, unable to keep the smile from her face. "But I don't think the rest of your loyal followers will."

Stoick dropped the axe, which was rather small, in surrender. "Fine. One hour. That's it."

Valka cheerfully grinned. "Thank you." She almost turned, relieved, but then a thought which she wished later would have just kept silent came. "By any chance, did any of our allies give any baby gifts?"

Stoick gave her a horrified look. "Did you tell anyone? You're the one who told me to keep it a secret! Why…?"

"I was just asking!" Valka protested. "Some of those chiefs, while they're nice people, have a rude sense of humor, so…did we get anything?"

Stoick shook his head. "Thankfully, no. We'll be getting enough gifts when the villagers find out you're…you know."

Valka smirked. "Scared of eavesdroppers?"

Stoick's nod and careful glance around his own house answered her. She laughed in response and once again turned to leave, a plan forming in her head.

"Don't you almost feel young again?" Stoick asked her.

She turned. "What?"

Stoick gestured to the trinkets at his feet. "We're receiving wedding gifts, keeping the secret of a pregnant wife until the time is right…doesn't it remind you of the early years?"

Valka stared at her "wedding" gifts, and smirked. "Only a touch. Dragons weren't occupying my every thought the last time."

Stoick chuckled and stroked her shoulders. "Well, then this time, it's perfect."

The reenactment of Stoick and Valka's wedding was planned hurriedly, in less than a week's time, which annoyed some of the village gossipers, who'd much rather have something to gossip about for six months rather than a week.

But little did they know, that they just might.

The day of the wedding finally came. Villagers filed in one by one and took their seats. One look at the Great Hall and one could tell that this wedding had the least amount of pomp and circumstance possible. Did the "new" couple not care for each other, even after years of separation? Of course, only the women theorized such things. The men were content to witness this thing their wives dragged them to, drown themselves in ale afterward, and fall asleep at three o'clock in the morning and not awake until noon.

Stoick stood at the front, feeling the most ridiculous he'd ever felt since when Hiccup was two years old. The little boy wanted him to wear an apron with flowers on it for a reason Stoick didn't remember, and to his chagrin, Stoick had put it on. But that was behind him now. Stoick now stood in front of all his subjects, dressed up enough to satisfy the women but homely enough that he didn't feel overly ridiculous.

Gobber was beside him. "You do know that I am one hundred percent sided with you on just saying you're married and getting this over with, right?"

Stoick nodded to Gobber's comment, though he knew that Gobber was the most sentimental one in the room, and wanted to see the reenactment at its original glory, but that wouldn't happen.

Valka came down the aisle on schedule at a rather brisk pace, escorted by Hiccup of all people. He had given his mother away to his father very happily. He then sat down by Astrid and his friends in the second row. His parents were alone up there now, except for Gobber, who, only to satisfy his friends, dryly asked them to renew their wedding vows.

"Do you promise to love, honor and cherish and so on and so forth until you both die?" Gobber asked, looking at Stoick.

"Yup."

The women were giving obvious facial expressions of distaste; all that is, except for Ruffnut and Astrid, who used all their strength to hold back their giggles at the absolute dullness of the joyous occasion. The men were indifferent, including, surprisingly, Hiccup.

"And does the bride dido the promise to her husband?"

Valka nodded, smiling as broadly as the first wedding. "Yes. Absolutely."

"Very well then," Gobber chirped, holding back his laughter when he saw the woman's ghastly horrified faces. "I now pronounce you remarried husband and wife. Now can we have ale?"

The men cheered while the womens' jaws dropped in horror. Astrid and Ruffnut took the opportunity to let out a few giggles before a woman stared at them in threatening distaste.

Valka's voice could be heard above the crowd. "Everyone shut it!" Promptly, all did so. She then continued, "Before we indulge ourselves in worldly pleasures, Stoick and I have an announcement."

"We do?" Stoick asked with unhidden shock, but he corrected just in time. "Ah, we do!"

The womens' curiosity piqued, and all eyes were on the chief and his wife. Hiccup was the only one with a relaxed expression, and Astrid noticed.

"Hiccup," she whispered, "What's going on?"

He shushed her and patted her hands, looking at his parents. He'd known them both long enough to know that something was up, even if his father apparently didn't known until now.

Valka smiled enthusiastically and announced, "There was more than one reason we wanted to redo our wedding, and do it at such a…well, dim setting. We didn't want our marriage to be the focus of today, but something else."

Hiccup panicked. He didn't tell his parents of his marriage proposal. But could they tell? Parents did that kind of thing. They knew their kid's secrets even if a dragon guarded them. He caught Astrid's horrified stare that bellowed, Did you tell them you son of a half-troll? He hoped his look of guilt and hopelessness was enough to say he didn't and plead for mercy.

His mother continued, "Something wonderful has blessed our life. And it seemed that redoing the wedding was the best way to announce it. We didn't want to forewarn you with anything, and we wanted to be certain about it before we told anyone."

Stoick's and Hiccup's eyes lit up in understanding.

Valka finally said it. "I'm three months along."

A cricket chirping now would've been appropriate, but to the Haddock family's near terror, none chirped to normalize the silence.

Astrid's horrified look melted into a happy one. She pecked Hiccup's cheek, but that was the only normal reaction in the room.

Finally, Gobber lifted Valka in the air, spinning her around. "Congratulations!" he cried, laughing.

His outburst seemed to shake the entire village from their shock, and soon, everyone was cheering and clapping, keeping their comments on the parents' age to themselves.

The reception was simply a small dinner where women came to rub Valka's tummy and men came to congratulate Stoick on producing another heir. Hiccup was bombarded with hearty slaps on the back and congratulations on being a brother, all with Astrid at his side. But even though she tried hard, she couldn't force herself to be happy since she heard of the pregnancy. Of course, she was delighted, actually flabbergasted, and ecstatic when she heard, and she still was, but she found herself continuing to steal glances at her future parents-in-law.

Stoick kept kissing Valka on the cheek, on the lips, her hands, and hugging her. Whenever they had a small break, he held her with such a delicate love that Astrid soon believed Valka was a delicate, endangered flower. Or maybe it was the baby inside her that forced such love. But Astrid was observant enough to know that it wasn't. Stoick had treated her like that since he recovered from broken ribs, in the village, and when she came to their house for dinner. She didn't get it.

She kissed Hiccup and promised she'd be back, and hurriedly escaped the Great Hall for a moment. The night air was refreshing. She wished to go for a ride on Stormfly, but she didn't feel like it. She had too much on her mind for a flight.

"Astrid?"

The voice wasn't Hiccup's. It was hoarser and more demanding. She turned to see Stoick leaning from the doorway.

"I saw you leave and I thought there was something wrong," he explained.

Astrid shook her head. "Nope. It's alright. Congratulations on the baby."

Stoick smiled, but not so much, because Astrid knew that he sensed she was lying. "Thank you, Astrid. Well, if there's nothing on your mind…" he turned to go.

"Chief!" she cried.

Stoick chuckled and returned. "What is it?"

Astrid tried hard to form the words, but for some reason, they weren't coming. Her confidence was waning, and she hated it. "I-I have a personal question."

Stoick's eyebrows lifted in shock, but before he could protest, Astrid continued, "You love Valka so much and…but you're completely different from each other! I-I guess I'm asking…how do you love each other so much?"

Stoick nodded in understanding. He sighed and thought it over a moment, which made Astrid even more edgy.

"Uh, it's a very interesting question, Astrid. Now let me answer your question with a question. Why do you love Hiccup?"

Astrid started. She hadn't expected that as a response, maybe a more precise answer. "Well…I guess I love him because he's understanding and…he stands up for who he loves and he won't let anyone touch them…I guess."

Stoick smiled. "There's your answer."

Astrid's eyebrows pinched. "I-I still don't get it. You love her because she's understanding and protective?"

Stoick sensed her frustration and huffed. "I guess what I'm saying Astrid is…you and I both see the world in black and white, right and wrong. If anything steps out of those boundaries, we hate it, like when Hiccup trained the dragons. But Valka and Hiccup have…this ability to see the world in different colors. They explore new possibilities and it kind of rescues us from our dimly colored world. They have that childlike sense of adventure and curiosity, and I guess the reason why I love Valka is because she took me out of the dirt by showing me how good curiosity is, and without her, I'm stuck in a colorless world."

"Hmm," a voice interrupted, "we should've done a bigger wedding. You could've used that as your toast."

Stoick laughed as Valka snuck in. "Just chatting with our future daughter-in-law."

Astrid laughed too, knowing that they didn't know of the proposal. That had been a running joke for months now, so Astrid didn't suspect anything bad. Hiccup didn't tell them.

"Thanks for your help Chief, I think I get it now." Astrid raced back in to find Hiccup. She finally did, among the older men who were asking him of his plans for when he took over as chief. Poor Hiccup could only mutter generalizations about dragon maintenance in return. The elders soon grew tired of this and hobbled away. Before anyone else could steal him away, Astrid grabbed his vest and kissed him full on the lips.

Hiccup didn't complain, but his shock was evident. "What was that for?"

Astrid smiled and laid her head against his chest. "That was for showing me baby blue, midnight black, ruby red, a new yellow, and the beautiful, ghostly colors of the light in the sky. I think it was blue-green, majestic purple, and a thousand others."

Hiccup stared. Astrid predicted her new poetry speech would've confused him, make him wonder where his Astrid was, so she just kissed him again and said, "Thanks for being curious."