Hiccup rushed down the stairs, forgoing his prosthetic in his hurry and using his one good leg. His mind was racing. Was it a hurt dragon? Worse, a hurt human? A dead human?

It's Snotlout. Hiccup reasoned, the step-thunk of his pace echoing through the tunnel-like underchamber. For all I know, it's a loot chest with hair in it. Hair, for Thor's sake!

Snotlout screeched to a stop in front of a large door, almost the size of Toothless. "Now", he started, waving his hands as if to calm Hiccup. "-I don't know how to explain this, but just don't freak out, OK?"

Alarm bells went off. "OK…" What on earth is behind there? Snotlout reached for the latch, hesitated.

"Oh, this is so-"

"Open the door, Snotlout!"

"OK, OK! Geez, Princess Outpost, I'm going!" Snotlout slid back the latch and opened the door, revealing a cavernous square room. It stunk, for one. One far corner was covered in- Hiccup gulped- he wasn't going to focus on that. Shackles hung empty from the walls, chains trailed on the floor. Hiccup's stomach churned, that familiar rage bubbling up inside him again. He clenched his fists. "This is so… wrong."

"I know." Hiccup glanced over to see Snotlout in an almost exact mirror of his pose.

"Whatever happens to them on that island, they deserve." Hiccup muttered- Snotlout's eyes went wide for a moment. He'd never heard Hiccup say something so spiteful. But he wasn't disagreeing.

"What did you want to show me?" Hiccup ground out, straightening and carefully wiping his face of that anger.

Snotlout started. "See that wooden box in the middle of the room?"

"Yeah."

"Go uncover it."

Hiccup started forward hesitantly. What on earth could be in there that made Snotlout so nervous? Please don't be anything gross. He begged to no one in particular, reaching the box. It was covered by a thin piece of limply hanging burlap, and Hiccup could see a vague shape inside.

He gently fingered one corner of the rough fabric, took a deep breath-

And ripped it off, only to jump back with a high squeak. "That's- how- wha- Snotlout ohmyThor that's a child!"

"I dunno what to do with it!"

A small cry echoed through the room, silencing both of them. They tiptoed forward, Hiccup wincing every time his prosthetic clacked on the floor. "What do we do?" He whispered.

"I dunno!" The baby's crying grew louder. Hiccup shot the other Viking a glare. "Will you shush?" He whispered, gently reaching in the box. "Oh, Thor help me, I have no idea what I'm doing."

Hiccup gently wrapped his hands under the baby's back, lifting it into the air and holding it out in front of him to get a better look.

"Don't drop him!" Came Snotlout's horrified whisper. Hiccup shifted, not daring to look away. "I'm not gonna drop him, Snotlout." His teeth were clenched.

"How do you know it's a him?"

A pointed glance.

"Oh."

Hiccup adjusted the dirty wrappings around the child, wrinkling his nose at the stench. "Eugh, someone needs to be changed. But look at his skin!"

"Huh?"

"It's weird… he's not as dark as the slaves, but he's definitely not Nordic. Look at him!" Hiccup flipped the baby around so its pudgy, red face was facing Snotlout. The Viking peered at the baby, its little legs churning. "He looks almost like that masked bandit dude."

"You're right!" Hiccup replied, face lighting for a moment. Snotlout used his brain for once! "Do you think they're both half-bloods?" Suddenly the smile disappeared. I bet whoever's baby this is didn't want to have a child.

Images flashed through his mind that he didn't want to see. That woman, the only one who wasn't smiling when they left.

"I guess that's why he was left here. Neither side would take a baby with the other's blood."

Snotlout's face contorted into a grimace. "That's stupid."

Hiccup lodged this moment in his memory. Here was a perfect example of the Snotlout beneath the surface- empathetic and passionate. That immediately disappeared, however, when the baby's wails grew louder. Tears and snot trailed down its little round face as Hiccup held the baby as far away from him as possible and Snotlout clapped his hands over his ears. The piercing sound almost drowned out Snotlout's desperate "RUFFNUT! ASTRID!"

The two burst into the room moments later, followed by the remaining males of the group. Astrid's worried expression dissolved into laughter as she took in the sight. "Where- where on earth did you find that?!"

"Is that a baby?" Fishlegs added.

"Yes!" Hiccup cried, frozen to the spot, arms still outstretched. "Just- somebody make it stop!"

"I don't know how!" Ruffnut replied; Snotlout griped. "You're the woman! You're supposed to-"

Astrid's stony glare stopped him in his tracks. "I mean- I just thought- oh, nevermind."

"Hiccup-" Astrid stepped as close as she dared to the young Viking and his furiously screaming package. "What are we gonna do with a baby? We can't take care of it!"

"Do they usually make this much noise?" Tuffnut shouted over the din.

Fishlegs informed Tuffnut; meanwhile, Hiccup was replying: "We can't just leave him here, Astrid! No one from the tribe will take him! Don't babies need to eat, like, a lot?"

"They need milk every four to six hours!" Fishlegs replied helpfully.

"How are we supposed to do that?!" Ruffnut yelled, voice gravelly and brash. "It's not like Astrid or I have any milk to give it!"

"Eugh!" Snotlout squirmed, Astrid laughing at Hiccup's blush. Tease him later, she had to remind herself. "Hiccup, we need to get this baby to someone who can actually take care of it!"

"Let's just go back to the Edge!" Hiccup finally decided, the small crowd parting like the sea for the screaming child he was still awkwardly holding out. His arms were getting sore, but he really didn't know what else to do. "I'll- just-" He shimmied around the corner, antics reaching a new level of hilarity. "-ride back with Toothless?"

"Please tell me this isn't going to be another Deathsong thing!" Snotlout begged. Hiccup paused halfway up the stairs, prosthetic braced against the wall, glancing back at Snotlout awkwardly over his shoulders. Astrid stifled a chuckle when he almost slipped down the stairs. Righting himself, Hiccup merely cast the burly Viking an uncertain shrug before forcing the hatch open with his shoulder and emerging blinking out into the sunlight.

"Oh, great!" Snotlout griped, the others brushing past him. "So we're not even gonna try to make a plan? We're just gonna raise a child?!"

He was given no response. "Ok, don't listen to the Snot!" He shouted, stomping up the stairs after his friends.

"The things I let myself get dragged into…"

———————————————————

"You know, Fishlegs?" Hiccup called. It was nighttime now, and the temperature had dropped significantly. They'd stopped on a seastack to let Snotlout- he'd drawn the short straw- practically drown the baby in drinking water and wrap it in a spare blanket. The little child was shivering in Hiccup's arms, still wailing his little lungs out. "Snotlout's right!"

"I'm what?" Came the half-shocked reply from a certain still-sullen Viking.

"This baby needs an actual parent! Remember who we asked last time this happened?"

"We had a baby once? Who's was it?"

"No, Tuffnut." Fishlegs huffed, thinking for a moment. Then his face lit up. "Oh! Yes! Do you want me to go to Beserk and get Heather?" Hiccup laughed at his friend's sudden excitement, shooting him a knowing look which went completely ignored. "Please do! I don't think I can take much more of this!"

"Neither can we!" Astrid supplied, two fingers dug deep into her ears. "This kid has pipes!"

Fishlegs hummed off into the distance, soon traveling out of their eyesight over the darkened horizon. "Hey, Astrid!" Hiccup called, wincing when the baby cried even louder. He'd given up on holding him out, sacrificing his ears for the sake of both of their comfort. The baby was now nestled awkwardly in the crook of his elbow. "We need a name for the baby!"

"Huh?"

"We can't just keep calling him 'the baby'. He deserves a real name!"

Astrid nodded. "You and Fishlegs usually come up with- oh, no, Hiccup, I'm not letting you name a human. The names you come up with…" She shuddered dramatically. "I'd rather let Tuffnut name him!"

"Really?!" Hiccup joked over the increasing cries. "It's that bad? Worse that Smidvarg?!"

"Yes!" Astrid prodded. "You and naming things do not go together!"

"What about Gunnar?!" Tuffnut suggested suddenly, bringing the group's conversation to a screeching halt.

"Gunnar? That means warrior, idiot." Snotlout grumbled.

"And this little guy is definitely a warrior, Hiccup!" Astrid shouted. "He's already practicing his battle cry!"

"Gunnar?" Hiccup whispered, fingering the little tanned baby's blanket. "Do you like that, little guy?" To everyone's shock, he instantly

went quiet, staring up at Hiccup with wide, thoughtful brown eyes. Hiccup smiled softly." Gunnar it is, then."

The Edge came into sight and they dove, Hiccup instructing Toothless to keep the landing as smooth as possible and shifting so he wouldn't jostle the baby with his prosthetic's shifting. By the time they all made it back, tiptoeing, to the Clubhouse, little Gunnar was asleep. The others followed suit with ease, no doubt exhausted from their buckride of a day. But Hiccup stayed awake for a long while, watching the baby sleep and sitting with him by the fire. Studying his little face and hands, the way the corners of his brown-red lips turned up when he heaved a sigh, and the way his tiny fingers tightened against the blanket every so often. Unlike his family, Gunnar's hands were lighter on the bottom, Hiccup noticed. If only we had more time to speak with them. We could learn so much.

But do I really want to make friends with a people who would leave a child behind for something that wasn't his fault? Hiccup sighed, cradling little Gunnar against his chest and leaning back against Toothless. As he drifted off to sleep, a little space in his heart opened up for that young boy that no one wanted. He, after all, knew exactly how that felt.

———————————————————

Fishlegs arrived the next morning to find them all crowded around the fireplace-table in the Clubhouse, animatedly discussing something. "No, Tuff! You can't feed a baby yak chops!"

"Why not?"

"Duh! It doesn't have teeth, muttonhead!" Snotlout's brash voice overshadowed everything else. Fishlegs huffed a laugh. So that's what it was about. "Guys!" He called, sauntering in the open bay door. "I brought someone!"

"Heather!" Astrid cried, racing to meet her close friend. They both hugged and exchanged arm guard clanks, Ruffnut coming up to fistbump the woman a moment later. Tuffnut, meanwhile, held a strangely thoughtful expression. Suddenly his face lit up and he raised one finger. "Oh, I get it! Heather's gonna help us take care of Gunnar!"

"Is that what you named him?" Heather questioned, crossing the room and standing between Astrid and Hiccup. Her face melted upon sight of the little dark baby, happily gurgling as Tuffnut tickled the spot under his chin. "Who's your favorite uncle? Huh? Uncle Tuff?"

Hiccup laughed as Heather scooped Gunnar into her arms. "Yeah, right!" She teased.

"It's totally gonna be me!" Snotlout interjected, shouldering Tuffnut out of the way and sticking his face in close to Heather's shoulder. He made several funny faces, eliciting a loud gurgle and a hiccup. "Hah! He Hiccuped! Just like his new dad."

"Oh, the irony." Hiccup deadpanned. "And- since when did we decide I'm the dad?"

"Uh, Dadcup and Momstrid, duh." Tuffnut brushed himself off and straightened, speaking with an affronted air. "You guys take care of, like, the whole base. You're obviously the parents."

"Great." Astrid muttered. "So, hey little guy, apparently I'm your mom now. That's normal. And hey, look, there's your dad! One big, happy, chaotic family!" Hiccup blushed several shades of scarlet at that comment; unfortunately Ruffnut saw it. "Oh, but my dear Hiccup! For you both to be parents you would've had to-"

"And I'll take it from here!" Heather yelped, eliciting awkward chuckling from around the room. She nudged Astrid. "I'll help you out, don't worry. Fishlegs said you have a supply of yak milk somewhere?"

"Will that even work?" Astrid asked.

"It'll have to." Heather followed Hiccup to a small crate in the back of the room. "We wanna get him weaned as fast as possible though. The faster little Gunnar starts eating real food, the stronger he'll get. Here, give me the bottle. I'll see what I can do." Hiccup wordlessly handed her a small jug of milk and she crossed the room, sitting in a shadowy corner with a very confused Gunnar and quietly trying to get him to eat. Hiccup, meanwhile, had gone to speak with Fishlegs.

"Is it OK that we named him? I mean- we don't know about his family's naming ceremonies, but ours are kind of complicated. And he's not Norse, so I felt weird about naming him after something Nordic-"

"I'm sure it's fine, Hiccup. If anything, we can have a proper ceremony later on. But… who's gonna take the kid?" Hiccup paused, shrugged, a vacant look in his eye. He hadn't thought that far ahead.

"I don't care who, as long as he has a home."

Fishlegs smiled, heart warming at his friend's determination to this little baby. "Ok. Well, we could ask the village elder for details."

"Gothi?"

"Yeah."

Hiccup stroked his chin, deep in thought. "You know, that would be great! And maybe we can even find him a family back on Berk! I mean, it's not like we could raise a kid here…" His high spirits fell slightly.

"You're right." Fishlegs assured his friend. "I'm gonna go get some rest." Hiccup nodded absentmindedly.

A new voice spoke up. "Fly for Berk tomorrow?" Hiccup whipped around as Astrid approached them. "Yeah." He conceded. "Will you go tell Heather?"

His look lingered after Astrid left; Fishlegs shot him a teasing, pointed glance. "Oh, stop it." Hiccup waved a hand at the larger Viking, heading over to Heather.

"He won't eat, Hiccup!" Heather sighed. "He's super picky. I've been trying everything I know- look, I even made him a sippy cup!" Hiccup took the small bottle, awkwardly holding out his hands.

"You want to…?"

He nodded. "Let me try, Heather. I don't know anything about-" He gestured wildly toward Gunnar, Heather, the whole situation. "-this, but I want to help." Heather hesitated.

"You sure?"

At Hiccup's resolute nod Heather pressed the little baby Gunnar into his arms. Hiccup shifted every few seconds, not quite sure how to make the little roly-poly of a baby comfortable. He ended up sitting on the floor against the wall, so-called 'sippy cup' in one hand and Gunnar pressed into his forearm. The baby squirmed against the worn leather of his arm guards, gazing up at him with those deep brown eyes again. Hiccup smiled. "Hey there, buddy. How's it going?"

He felt a small push against his chest and glanced down to see Gunnar had managed to wriggle his foot out from its swaddle and prod him right on his leather buckles. Hiccup chuckled. "What? You don't like leather?"

Silence- Obviously, was I expecting him to talk back? "So, how old do you think he is?" Hiccup asked, gently tapping each of the little toes on Gunnar's free foot.

"Oh, I dunno. Probably somewhere around five or six months old. Social skills aren't great yet, but that might be because of… well, his backstory." Hiccup's grin turned sour. "Yeah. Right."

Turning his eyes back to the little baby in his arms, Hiccup pressed the soft-tipped bottle to his lips. "Here ya go, little guy. Oh, come on. You know you're hungry."

"Hiccup." Astrid's voice was light with amusement above him. "What on Midgard are you doing?"

"I'm…" Hiccup glanced down sheepishly. "Feeding Gunnar? Or, attempting to. He doesn't seem very hungry."

"Would you like to drink warm goat's milk?" Hiccup nodded, eliciting a disgusted sound from the shield maiden bending over his shoulder.

"Ok, you're gross. Point is, I think this little guy's picky. Try getting some ice."

"Hey, Snot!" Hiccup called, earning a snort from the black-haired girl to his left. "Go get us some snow from the cap!"

Snotlout straightened from his position on top of Tuffnut, scowling. "Why- AGH! Tuffnut! Stop it! I tackled you! I won!"

"Just go get it!"

"Why should I-"

"Do you really want the little guy keeping you up all night?"

Snotlout was out the bay door in a second. Astrid snorted, straightening. "I think that's the fastest he's ever moved in his life!"

"Except when he was running from Bjorn Boar." Everyone turned to look at a slightly woozy Tuffnut.

"What?" He asked at their questioning faces. "Egh, don't ask."

They didn't.

Several minutes passed before Snotlout returned, Hiccup and Astrid quietly playing with Gunnar. Heather couldn't help but smile as they let out quiet laughs, tickling his little fingers and toes. I knew they would get together, she huffed to herself.

Gunnar let out a small squeal and Hiccup's head shot up, giving Astrid a delighted glance. "Did- did you hear that?"

Her lips split into a smile as Hiccup shifted so Gunnar was more between them. "Yeah."

Just then Toothless crawled up to them, roughly sticking his head between the two Vikings. Hiccup gave a quiet chuckle as the dragon's soft nose touched Gunnar's and huffed, sending a warm gust of air ruffling his thin, curly black hair.

A giggle split the air.

Everyone froze- even Snotlout, who'd just come back from his snow-grabbing escapade. His bucket hit the floor with a dull thunk. "Was that… what I think it was?"

Hiccup nodded, eyes as wide as saucers. He was grinning from ear to ear. "Do it again, bud." He whispered, hardly daring to break the stunned silence.

Toothless tilted his head in confusion, but at a gentle prodding from Hiccup he touched his nose to the boy's head again. Two small hands reached up, awkwardly feeling his nose and face. Toothless gave his rider an uncertain glance- was this supposed to be happening? He didn't want to hurt the little hatchling.

A finger prodded his mouth, sneaking in between his teeth. Toothless snorted, pulling away. That tickled! The hatchling giggled again, and Toothless could physically feel waves of warmth and joy coming from his rider. This was confusing. The hatchling wasn't his hatchling, was it? He couldn't smell anything on his rider's mate… no, this was someone else's hatchling. So why was his rider so happy?

"Oh my gosh." Tuffnut gushed, rushing over. "Yes! He's verbal! Gunnar! Can you say 'Uncle Tuffnut'?"

Hiccup rolled his eyes, still grinning. "Oh, stop it with that!"

"Whatever you say, Princess Outpost!" Snotlout cheered, shoving Tuffnut out of the way. Ruffnut and Fishlegs stood off to the side, happily gazing in. "Make him do it again!"

Snotlout grinned as a genius joke came to him. He clapped a hand to Hiccup's shoulder, a hearty gesture that sent Hiccup almost tumbling forward. "Or should I say Daddy Outpost?" He watched in horror as Gunnar's little, round face contorted. His gummy mouth (only sporting three top teeth) opened wide, letting out a high-pitched wail. Snotlout instantly backpedaled with a dramatic groan. "Why is it always me?!"

"Maybe you're not the favorite uncle after all!" Hiccup snarked, turning back to the baby in his arms. "Aww, little guy, what's the matter?"

"Check his swaddle!" Tuffnut suggested very loudly from the other side of the room. His fingers were stuck deep in his ears. "I know I hate it when I have a mess in my pants!"

Hiccup made a disgusted face- pretty much everyone else in the room nodded. "Ok, then!" He carefully pulled the swaddle away, and Astrid couldn't see what he saw, but it must not have been nice. His face screwed up and he held Gunnar as far away from him as he could get. " Tuffnut, you were right! You know what that means?"

Tuffnut pulled his finger out of his mouth. "What?"

"You get to change him!"

Uproarious laughter followed Tuffnut's yelp. "Oh, Thor, I beg thee, do not torment me!"

But Hiccup was relentless, as usual, and Tuffnut ended up leaving the room with a fresh piece of cloth and a wailing Gunnar held over his shoulder like a sack of pelts.

A/N: Look at me, finally uploading something at least once a week. Gosh.

Tell me what you think! God Bless!