MidwestMexican - nope, only Hiccup, Astrid and Gothi (obviously) know that Valka's got a baby in her.
Kirbster676 - as above, nobody knows she's pregnant so nobody is wondering about the daddy. It'll be covered in this chapter, worry not!
-HTTYD-
"Alright Erica, calm yourself down. Momma is coming."
Astrid made her way to her wailing daughter Erica, or 'little screamer' as she was affectionately known because gods did the girl have a set of lungs on her. As soon as she was in her mothers arms being offered a breast to nurse from, Erica quitened down.
"If I was anything like this as a baby I wholeheartedly apologise mom."
Hiccup and Valka were sat nearby, watching Astrid feed the newborn. At only a few weeks old, Erica already had a strong sense of personality. Mostly being very demanding and constantly hungry.
"Actually, you were a surprisingly well tempered babe. You hardly ever cried... the consensus was you liked the sound of my voice, and I was always telling you stories or singing to you. You did cry at your father alot, it took him a while to realise you reacted negatively to loud noises and he was, well-"
"Born shouting. Yeah. I can see that, since I love the sound of your voice now."
Valka was getting bigger, even her largest coat struggling to conceal her bump now and as she was still rather slender, she couldn't easily pass it off as weight gain. Hiccup kissed his mother, then happily reached to take Erica to wind her as though her regurgitated milk burps weren't a little bit disgusting. He thrilled in fatherhood so clearly, always tickling her little feet and proudly talking about her to anyone who would listen.
Erica already seemed to have taken to Valka too, settling quietly in her arms to be sang to. Valka sang short songs and great epics, anything to soothe the baby when neither Astrid or Hiccup could seem to. She may have missed out on the experience of raising Hiccup, but something deeply instinctive within Valka screamed mother.
"You, little lady, are very lucky to be born to this generation. The generation that grows up knowing dragons."
"Thanks to you two."
Hiccup and Valka both looked up at her, even Erica peering in her direction.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, your mom gave you the dragon love. You took it and ran with it. Without you two, this place would have wiped themselves out and I would be a spinster threatening any man who came near with an axe."
Hiccup chuckled, handing Erica to Valka carefully before reaching to pull Astrid to her feet.
"I have no doubt a wonder such as yourself would have found someone worthy of her affections."
"Hiccup, I would never have admitted I had affections without you and Stormfly. The girl I was before falling for you would never have allowed her betrothed to take a mistress, let alone join in there."
Chuckling, Hiccup nuzzled her nose and pecked her lips.
"Nah. You would have found your way. You give me too much credit for the wonderful woman you already were. Let's not forget I was crushing on you for a good couple of years before you noticed me."
She squeezed him, then hissed at the pressure on her sore breasts. Hiccup realised immediately and stepped back.
"Sorry."
"S'ok, I just need to remember how sore they get."
He hugged her from the side instead, kissing the side of her jaw.
"Better?"
"Mm, yeah. Hoping this achey stage passes."
Having gone through it all before, Valka was an invaluable source of information on pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. Hiccup was a little too interested in it all, but then since he was attracted to both and one of the topics was him as a baby, a degree of fascination was probably to be expected.
Valka rubbed her swollen belly with the hand not cradling Erica, inviting both Astrid and Hiccup to feel the unborn baby kick.
"Getting tough to hide this."
Hiccup commented, flexing his fingers along the swell. Valka nodded, shifting Erica to rest higher against her chest where she could lean down and kiss the soft baby head.
"I agree, but it won't be for much longer. Has your bleeding ceased yet Astrid?"
Even her husband no longer blinked; living with two pregnant women had done wonders for Hiccup's awkwardness about 'female business' like monthly cycles or in Astrid's current case, post-birth bleeding that could last up to two full moon cycles but often ended by the first.
"Almost. It's definitely eased but I'm not back in my favourite leggings and skirt yet."
Hiccup had stopped listening - Valka was rubbing at her breasts where they were swollen with the preparation for nursing. It was an action of discomfort, but Hiccup's primal instincts were obviously a little pent up - neither of the women were capable of their usual sexual antics. Hiccup never complained, but it was there all the same.
"Whoa! Someone needs a change! Give her here mom."
Hiccup scooped up their daughter and carried her off for a fresh diaper, chattering away to her about baby dragons like baby Vikings weren't capable of utterly disgusting smells. Erica continued fussing after she was clean, so Hiccup brought her back to the women. Astrid held her while Valka sang softly to her, caressing the fuzzy downy hair on the girls head until she drifted off in her mothers arms.
"She really is so beautiful."
Valka cooed, and Astrid smiled.
"Mhmm. You think you're having a boy or girl?"
"I'm not sure. I just want them to be healthy. Whether it's little Raider or little Livy."
They had picked names as a three for Valka's child - at Valka's insistence, while she had intentionally stayed out of naming Erica.
At this point, their biggest concern was still discovery. Valka had already said she would play off the father as someone she had a moment of weakness with while out exploring the dragon habitats if anyone noticed she were pregnant. But they didn't really want to have to malign her reputation that way if they could help it.
The secondary one was obviously the resemblance - Hiccup could probably pass for his mother with a shave and a wig, they were so alike. The likelihood Valka's child wouldn't resemble them both was low, but possible. Astrid didn't look much like either of her parents, her mothers hair colour and fathers eyes the biggest similarities.
Then Hiccup still couldn't grow a beard, let alone one like his fathers. From drawings and her own memories, Valka only had the vaguest passing resemblance to her parents.
It was something they would deal with if it came to it.
Astrid really hoped both kids had Hiccup and Valka's light freckles dusting their faces though. Their little ones would look so cute with them. Not that they wouldn't be adorable anyway. Erica already was.
"Come on little one, into the crib daddy here spent ages making only for you to be so cute we can't put you down."
The women chuckled as Hiccup carried her over, placing Erica in a fur wrap and laying her down like the most delicate flower into the crib he'd carved all by himself, right down to the runes that spelled her name along the top. Astrid suspected that was at least partially inspired by Valka sewing his name into the dragon toy she made him.
"Either of you mind if I go for a nap?"
Hiccup shook his head, nudging Valka up too.
"You go too mom, I'll stay with Erica."
"Are you sure son?"
"Positive. I can work on some sketches while she naps. Toothless needs a new stirrup system since he's started growing again. Go on. Shoo."
He made the most lazy shooing motion ever to exist, grinning when both women stood and kissed him before they headed upstairs to bed. Valka untied her breast bindings and slid the material out from beneath her shift, sighing deeply in relief.
"Oh, that's so much better but my back aches something fierce without them."
"Well, you know Hiccup will give you all the backrubs you can handle."
Astrid crawled into the bed and snuggled beneath the covers immediately, though once Valka took the other side the two shuffled closer to each other.
"I know, but he does have other calls on his time."
Valka kissed her forehead, smiling when Astrid lifted her head to meet her lips properly. They kissed lazily, but neither had the energy for more as they wriggled into comfortable positions and fell asleep. Astrid woke feeling groggy to the sound of Hiccup whispering gently that Erica was hungry.
"I gotta pee, I'll be down in a minute."
"Alright, we'll be waiting."
Casting a glance at her bedmate, Astrid saw Valka was still asleep so she pushed a pillow under her arm, hoping the woman wouldn't wake from the loss of Astrid's presence next to her. Clambering out of bed, she relished the ever-diminishing aches of birthing. They were only particularly bad when she squatted or stretched too far now, which she tried to avoid.
Heading down as quietly as she could, Astrid was greeted by the adorable sight of Hiccup trying to soothe their daughter as she huffed and threatened to start wailing in search of food. He lit up seeing her, waiting for Astrid to sit down before handing her the baby.
"Is that better little lady? I thought it might be."
Erica suckled away hungrily, an absolutely heroic effort on Hiccup's part meaning he managed not to stare... the whole time, anyway.
"How's your drawing coming on?"
"Pretty well. I'm so glad the village is learning to cope on its own again. It's much easier to be chief when nobody is asking me to check their table is the right height or if their shields polished enough."
Astrid snickered to herself, switching the side Erica nursed from to distribute the relief she got from emptying her breasts equally.
"They look to their chief. You're a good chief, but we absolutely appreciate that you can be home more often."
Hiccup smiled, leaning over to kiss her softly.
"There's nowhere else I would rather be."
"Damn straight. When's dinner?"
Her hopeful words were rewarded with Hiccup indicating the side where dinner prep had obviously been going on before Erica wanted her own dinner first.
"When she's done I'll go wake your mom. Unless you wanna go do it now?"
Hiccup understood her rather unsubtle hint, but shook his head.
"Mom's worried about the baby, I promised to behave. This is about the time where I made an early show."
Gods he was so understanding. Even Astrid was frustrated at the lack of sex and she was still sore from pushing out a human.
"Alright. I'll wake her."
"Thank you milady."
Hiccup happily took the baby to wind her after her feed while Astrid climbed the stairs to see Valka still sleeping. She looked beautiful, the hair that had escaped her lazy braids fanning across the pillow beneath her head, soft face peaceful in slumber. It was a shame to disturb her but Astrid bet she was hungry.
"Hey Valka" she nudged the woman gently "hey. It's time for dinner... almost. Try that again. It's almost time for dinner."
Valka started shaking, chuckling into her pillow as Astrid babbled. Rolling her eyes fondly, Astrid tossed her breast wrappings back to Valka.
"I'll see you downstairs."
"Thank you Astrid."
Her voice was all sweetly soft with sleep, making Astrid smile as she turned back and headed down. Hiccup had Erica back in her crib, now moving their food over to the fire to cook.
"Mom awake?"
"Yep. Told her dinners nearly done."
Astrid's stomach growled in anticipation as she smelled dinner cooking, turning around to see Valka stepping slowly down the stairs, bracing her hand on the wall. Her sleep shift was draped over a prominent bump, their second child growing within. Despite the fact she was already growing used to lacking sleep and lacking sex and screaming and dirty diapers...
Astrid was immensely excited to be preparing for a second one. Erica was going to grow up with a sibling; so many of the Vikings had not dared have multiple children with the threat of dragons. There were very few who had brothers and sisters. Of their generation, Astrid could only think of the twins, and they weren't exactly a voluntary choice.
As Valka grew closer to the ninth month of pregnancy, their tension grew slightly. Valka couldn't leave the hut in daylight, reduced to only going for short walks at night to visit Cloudjumper. Hiccup frequently excused it as her going off flying all day - she was a wild woman after all.
That was their advantage.
Not that the idea was pleasant.
"I wish there was another way."
"I know babe" Astrid squeezed his hand "but we didn't manage to hide that pregnancy for all this time only to give it away with the sounds of your mother screaming in our hut."
Hiccup sighed, leaning to kiss Astrid. She allowed it, then did the hard work to lean up and kiss a heavily pregnant Valka.
"We'll be back as soon as we can. If anyone asks, we're on a personal mission. Let them make of that what they will."
Astrid nodded, placing her hands on the enormous bump.
"I doubt it'll be long."
"As soon as mom can fly back, we'll be back. I have everything we'll need loaded up onto Toothless, including healer supplies and a specially warm and windproof sling for the baby to fly back in."
She wasn't looking forward to being alone for days, never mind alone with Erica but this was the only way. Valka and Hiccup could return with the 'found' baby, and it would be a joyful accident to everyone else that they had a second Haddock baby.
Hiccup and Valka both took turns cuddling Erica, kissing her soft brow and tickling little hands.. They both kissed Astrid again, then checked nobody was around outside and left to saddle up on Toothless - Valka couldn't fly alone with her heavy belly. As the wingbeats outside took them off into the night, Astrid sighed to herself and picked up her daughter, taking them both up to her bedroom.
"Just us for a few days. Maybe we'll spend a night with grandma and grandpa."
Gods, Astrid hadn't realised how badly she would miss the other two bodies that belonged in bed with her. She added an extra blanket for warmth, cuddled a pillow to her chest but it was no good. At least Erica didn't let her mope for long, regularly wailing and taking a long time to settle down. She could tell her other parents were missing.
Everyone noticed the missing two the next day, and Astrid could only say 'it was personal' when quizzed.
"Hiccup didn't tell me much. Just that they had to go deal with something. Excuse me, Erica is crying."
It was exhausting, and even with visits from Heather and Eret and Fishlegs at random intervals Astrid was achingly lonely without Hiccup and Valka. Realistically she knew they weren't having fun; Valka was about to pop, heavy and uncomfortable and about to be in immense pain.
The second night was worse than the first, and Astrid got next to no sleep the whole night. When she did eventually drop off, Astrid was woken by an overexcited Terrible Terror chirping at the window. Answering it before the scaled pest woke Erica, Astrid realised what the note was.
"Raider."
-HTTYD-
I have my reservations about Erica being a name they would have used back then, but it came up on a bunch of 'old Norse girls names' lists I trawled through, and I really like the name.