Here's a very sweet Stoick story. We had lots of feels while writing it. Enjoy!

Poppy

The mead was pouring, the bells were ringing, the dragons were still licking pie off of their humans after their children had pelted them with pastries, and the Haddock children were beginning to drift off in their parents' arms. Knowing that it was getting past their bedtime, even for a holiday, Hiccup and Astrid had already begun to rebundle them into their warmest furs for the long trek back to their home near the Academy.

"Bedtime, I see," Stoick remarked as Astrid hauled Finn up into her arms and headed to the door.

"Yes, well, my child is ready," Astrid said pointedly, more to her husband than her father-in-law. Hiccup was still wrestling Adrianna's arms into her coat as she struggled to watch the festivities.

"I don wanna go bed…" She muttered, near incoherently. "I'm not tired."

Hiccup laughed a little. "Are you sure about that?" The little girl didn't answer.

"You never liked to leave Snoggletog yourself, son," Stoick reminisced for a moment. "Actually, even at this age you used to sneak away and hide. Mm… it all changed when your mother died, though, then I had to drag you along."

Hiccup smiled slightly and hoisted Adrianna up so that her head rested on his shoulder. "Well, since we're claiming children now," he said to Astrid, "I guess my kid is ready too." He turned to the hall of remaining Vikings and shouted over the music, "Goodnight everyone!" Many stopped to return the courtesy. Stoick accompanied them to the door where other members of the tribe were preparing to leave or were hauling out the empty barrels of drinks and liquors.

"Well, goodnight kids. Happy Snoggletog." Stoick clapped his son fondly on the back and smiled at Astrid. "Get the kids off to bed."

Adrianna, who was still mostly awake, tugged on her grandfather's beard rather affectionately. He leaned forward to respond to her beckoning, and she leaned over to kiss him on the cheek.

"G'night Poppy. Happy Snogtog."

He smiled and kissed her on the top of the head. "You too, Anna. I'll see you tomorrow." He gently ruffled Finn's head, but as the boy was now completely asleep he didn't stir. When the door finally closed shut behind the couple, blocking out the icy blasts of snowy air, a hairy, unwelcome arm draped familiarly around Stoick's shoulder.

"Poppy?" It was Spitelout. He appeared to be rather tipsy, and was washing down his last mead with a pint of whiskey. "Stoick the Vast is called… Poppy? By a little brat?"

"That's my granddaughter you're talking about, Spitelout." Stoick shrugged off the man's arm.

"Still," Spitelout sniggered. "I have a hard time seeing a great warrior as yourself as a 'Poppy!' Couldn't you have come up with a more Viking title? Something more… rugged and manly? Becoming your son's father, you are!"

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Stoick gave the man a hard look, but Spitelout was a little too far from his right mind to refrain from opening his mouth.

"Well, you know… different. Soft."

"My son, the dragon trainer, is far from not being a Viking." Stoick felt rather defensive, though he was certain Spitelout probably hadn't meant his comment in a malicious way. Well, not too maliciously, at least.

"Poppy!" Spitelout continued guffawing for a moment before a handbell came to rest with a dull clang on his shoulder. Gobber, bell for a hand, was frowning at him.

"I think you need to sober up some, before Stoick sobers you up for good." He suggested. Stoick sighed.

"He's too drunk to kill, Gobber."

"Still, it sounded good." Gobber insisted. Stoick laughed.

It perhaps should not have surprised Stoick that so many of the remaining adults in the hall were interested in the goings on at the door, especially as Spitelout was letting his mouth hang looser than usual. They were shooting inquisitive looks at the trio, and Stoick was beginning to feel that perhaps this was the optimal time to share a little good cheer, by way of a rather amusing story.

"Well, Spitelout, if you must know," he began, his voice a little louder than it had been before, "I wasn't too keen on the name 'Poppy' myself, but as it happened, I didn't have much choice on the matter. But, well, you know children—and any child of Hiccup's would have to be just as stubborn as their father—"

Stoick sat down at the roughly hewn table with a loud thump. Astrid was in the process of pouring him a stein of yak's milk while her husband was coming down the stairs with a bundle of loose leaves of paper.

"Thanks for coming over, dad," Hiccup was saying as he shuffled through the papers, a few falling unnoticed to the ground as he did.

"No problem. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?" Stoick drummed his fingers somewhat impatiently. "Gobber said it was urgent."

"Well, it's about the twins—" Hiccup began. Stoick's heart jumped a little in his chest. It seemed as though since the twins had been born it had been sleepless nights, bouts of colic, and screams of terror when one of the babies took a tumble. The parents had been high-strung since the children had been born, and Stoick had, on several occasions, received rushed requests to come fix the problems, as apparently Lotus could not be reached for every emergency.

"Well, tell me the worst of it."

"The worst?" Hiccup looked up from his papers. "It's just their birthday. Next week. We wanted to do something memorable for it."

"This was an emergency?"

"Not an emergency, per se, more like it was urgent because of time restraints. We were thinking about maybe throwing a party, and making something special for them. They are beginning to walk now, so we were thinking…"

"You do know that your children are too young to remember what you do for this occasion." Stoick interrupted Hiccup's train of thought.

"Yes, but it's their first birthday. It's a momentous occasion. Just imagine, they both survived one whole year with Astrid and me as their parents!"

"I do suppose that is something to celebrate," Stoick conceded. "But I still don't see what you need me for."

"Well, my family didn't really celebrate my first birthday," Astrid said, placing the milk before her father-in-law. "We were wondering what you did with Hiccup."

Stoick leaned back, searching his memories. "Ah! Yes, I remember. I took Hiccup to his first war meeting for his first birthday. You know, it was quite funny; partway through the meeting—"

"I don't think that I really want to take them to a war meeting. And in any case, we aren't on the verge of war…" Hiccup cut in. "Didn't you and mom do anything else?"

Stoick seemed to consider this for a bit. "Well, I think we had a bit of a party all to ourselves, and we did have a rather good present for us all. I commissioned Gobber to-"

Interruptions were running rampant that afternoon, as a shrill cry echoed from upstairs where the twins had been sleeping in their nursery. The couple exchanged looks as if to ask whose turn it was to respond, and as it so happened, it was Hiccup's. He sighed, dropped his various ideas on the table, and turned to go back upstairs to his offspring. Stoick found himself chuckling at this, remembering similar experiences in his own past. Quiet, distant hiccups interrupted his reminiscences as the nursery door opened.

"Sorry to drag you over here for something like this. We just wanted to make it special and our ability for creative thought has been—" a cry interrupted from her from upstairs, "inhibited."

"When was the last time you two took a day off?" Stoick asked, looking genuinely concerned.

"No one wants to watch a pair of twins. Even the other twins don't. Well, they tried once and even with their parents there to supervise, no one wants to watch a pair of twins." Astrid sighed.

"You haven't asked me."

"Yes well… you haven't offered. And we figured you were busy with all your duties as chief. Plus…" Astrid paused, thinking carefully. "You raised Hiccup. We figured you'd had enough stress for a lifetime."

"Thank you so much." Hiccup retorted, coming down the stairs with a twin held to each shoulder.

Stoick wordlessly walked up and took the wriggling Finn from his son. Hiccup looked deeply thankful. The chief bounced Finn a bit as he walked back to Astrid, causing the small boy to calm down a bit.

"If you'd like, I can take the twins to my house for a few hours so you can get some rest." He offered.

Sensing that this was a one-time offer, Hiccup and Astrid jumped all over it. Hiccup deposited the drowsy little girl in his father's other arm.

"All right, guys, have fun with your… your… we don't have a name for you." The young father realized. "What should they call you?"

"They can call me chief." Stoick said dismissively.

"Cheeeef!" Finn squealed, grinning and clapping his hands.

"They are not calling you chief." Astrid insisted. "How about gramps?"

"That makes me sound old." Stoick complained.

"Well, I mean, you are a grandfather." Hiccup shrugged.

"Watch your mouth, young man. This is a serious discussion. We're talking about the name they'll call me for the rest of my life." Stoick glared at his son who, instead of being intimidated, rolled his eyes.

"How about Pops?" Astrid suggested.

"Popsy!" Adrianna exclaimed with a grin.

"Absolutely not. That's even worse than gramps." Stoick shook his head.

Adrianna paused for a moment, thinking hard. "Poppy!"

Stoick opened his mouth to argue but was interrupted by grandson's shrill voice.

"Poppy! Poppy! Poppy!" Finn shouted, wiggling excitedly.

Stoick's look of disgust caused Hiccup to howl with laughter. "I think it's settled. You're Poppy." He chortled.

"A poppy is a flower!" Stoick protested. "Do I, in any way, resemble a flower?

Hiccup didn't trust himself to answer this question and so he remained silent. Stoick immediately picked up on his hesitation.

"No smart remarks about my beard." The larger man demanded.

Ironically, this was the moment young Adrianna decided that her Poppy's beard was a good toy to play with. She grabbed a fistful of thick, light red hair and tugged very hard. Stoick, having not been expecting this, attempted to pry her tiny fingers loose with his massive one. This proved to be unsuccessful. Finally, ignoring his daughter-in-law's laughter now, he resorted to using his pinky to pry open her clenched digits.

"Poppy!" she said, putting her arms as far around his neck as she could reach (which wasn't very far).

Stoick bristled. He was going to need to have a talk with his granddaughter.

They touched down in a flowery field coated in orange, red, and yellow an hour later. Stoick deposited both giggly children on the ground. Finn shakily stood up and took a few steps toward particularly large red flower before falling down on his bottom. Adrianna had not taken her first steps yet but she wasted no time in hoisting herself up using the leg of his pants and attempting to crawl into his lap.

"Poppy!" she repeated.

"Yes, Anna. This is a field of poppies." Stoick explained slowly. "I am not a poppy. This is a poppy." The grandfather picked up a flower and held it up to his tiny granddaughter's face.

"Poppy!" she squealed, pointing to Stoick with a big smile.

"Nooooo." Stoick said, holding the flower up so the girl had no choice but to look at it. "This is a poppy. I am a grandfather." He pointed to himself "Grand-fa-ther." he said slowly. He then pointed to the poppy. "Poppy." He repeated this several times.

Adrianna looked deeply thoughtful for a moment. She then brightened up and tugged the flower out of his hands. Thinking that she had finally gotten the idea, Stoick smiled as she crawled into his lap and stood on his leg so that she could reach the lowest point of his beard. She weaved the flower into it as best she could.

"Poppy." She said in a delighted sounding voice.

"Yes, there is now a poppy in my beard." Stoick said, beginning to sound slightly defeated.

The tiny girl climbed out of his lap and crawled into the field to collect more specimens. Finn, on the other hand, was attempting to climb into Thornado's mouth. The Thunderdrum, who had only opened his mouth to yawn, had been bewildered to discover a pair of hands hoisting a little body over his lips and toward his throat. He coughed slightly, as the dry hair irritated him, but refused to close his mouth or even shift it the slightest bit for fear the child would be impaled on a sharp tooth.

"Finn!" Stoick called. "Get out of the dragon's mouth!"

"Dwagaaaa!" Finn shouted with glee.

Stoick reached forward and grabbed the boy by his belt (which his parents called his leash) and pulled him out of the dragon's mouth. Finn didn't seem to realize the danger he had just been in. On the contrary, he seemed to think that this was an excellent adventure and was keen to embark on another one. By the time Stoick had managed to deposit the wiggling toddler on the other side of his lap, away from the dragon's mouth but dangerously close to its tail, Adrianna had decided that her grandfather needed to display his more feminine side and that all his gesturing from the flower to his beard had indicated quite clearly what he had wanted.

"Poppy!" She exclaimed, weaving a fourth flower into the man's long locks.

"It's not Poppy!" he snapped, turning back to the tiny girl.

The second the words were out of his mouth, he realized he had made a mistake. Adrianna's green eyes widened in fear and a hiccup escaped her throat.

"All right, all right!" he consented, knowing full well what the hiccup preceded. He put on an exaggerated grin. "Poppy is fine! Poppy is wonderful! I love Poppy! Whatever my little princess wants!" he hoped this would satisfy her.

It did. Seeing that he was now happy, Adrianna instantaneously went back humming and putting more flowers into her Poppy's beard. The afternoon was spent, crawling, tumbling, tickling, and wrestling in a poppy field. And, though he would never have said it out loud, Stoick was beginning to feel a warm, fuzzy place in his heart opening up for the name Poppy and those who knew him as such.

The first thing Hiccup and Astrid noticed when Stoick returned their now exhausted toddlers was that the older man's beard and a good amount of his hair were now littered with brightly colored flowers.

"So… had a fun afternoon?" Hiccup asked, trying to keep the amusement in his voice to a minimum (and failing miserably).

"Very good. Now I'm off to see Gobber for a restful evening." Stoick replied.

"I'm sure you are." Hiccup deadpanned, his mouth twitching.

"Now, now, Hiccup." Astrid said conspiratorially. "Let's not meddle into your father's private business."

"Especially not this." Hiccup agreed.

Stoick gave them a withering look. "You know very well that's not what I mean." He said.

"Then why did you get dressed up for the occasion?" Hiccup turned to Astrid and, in a very audible whispered, continued. "Who knew my father, the chief, was the woman in this relationship."

Astrid burst out laughing as Stoick smacked Hiccup on the side of the head. "This was your daughter's doing!" he exclaimed.

"Oh good. I was beginning to wonder." Hiccup sounded legitimately relieved.

Stoick made a move to extricate one of the larger flowers but, upon seeing his granddaughter's rather proud expression, he found himself unable to do so.

"Poppy!" she squealed delightedly.

Hiccup and Astrid looked back at Stoick, who shrugged. "I have killed hundreds of dragons, fought in three wars, and was present at the operation when my son had the rest of his foot removed. I might be saying this myself but I am a very brave man. But, despite it all, I have discovered that I cannot win an argument with a one year old girl who, under the threat of tears, has utterly defeated me."

"That's my girl!" Hiccup smiled and picked up his little daughter, who put her arms around his neck.

"I should have known you'd be involved in my downfall." Stoick said, shaking his head. "But I really do have to get to Gobber. We've set up a date- I mean meeting ever week at this time." He added, seeing his son's sly grin. "You know it's not like that."

"Oh I know. But what can I do when you make it so easy?" Hiccup chuckled.

"Right." Stoick said, realizing that he had absolutely no argument. "I'll just go then."

It wasn't until he was out of sight of the house that Stoick the Vast carefully removed the brightly colored flowers from his hair. His first instinct was to toss then but then, remembering his granddaughter's smile as she had weaved them into his beard, found himself unable to part with them.

Spitelout looked very amused as Stoick's story came to a close. Stoick had, of course, failed to mention the fact that he had kept the flowers, but the other Vikings were still raising their eyebrows at him.

"Call it what you may, but you won't understand until you have a granddaughter of your own. She'll have a very specific power over you, the kind that sneaks up on, grabs you from behind, and throws you into the prison of her heart forever." Stoick explained in a surprisingly gentle voice.

"I'm not convinced." Spitelout slurred. "You're just soft."

"Better soft than stubborn." Stoick retorted.

Within minutes, Spitelout had passed out, his head on the table and drool slowly emanating from his slack mouth. The next morning, through a pounding headache, he would remember absolutely nothing about this story. Neither would most of the town.

But Stoick woke up that first day after Snoggletog clear headed, warm hearted, and beside his book of pressed poppies.

Due to this installment's unfortunate (okay… intentional but still unfortunate) timing, I am aware I may have some very emotionally distressed readers. You all should know that… I don't regret a thing. For some reason, people seem to like emotional distress, otherwise no one would read this series.

Also I definitely don't ship Stobber but I think they're the most epic bromance ever.

In all seriousness, I guess I can say without spoiling anything that Stoick centered stories will continue to be written. I hope you enjoy.

~KateMarie999 and amyboomerang