Sorry this took so long! Thanks for being patient!

Hiccup walked down the stairs slowly, trying to wake himself up. His dragon was moody this morning because he was tired as well and was bumbling behind him.

He reached the last stair and ran his hand through his hair in a last-ditch effort to make it look halfway decent.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." Astrid teased good-naturedly from her spot on the floor.

"Good morning, Milady." Hiccup replied, smiling as he approached her.

"Dada," the tiny girl in Astrid's lap said, holding her arms up in his direction. Astrid smiled. She was such a daddy's girl.

"Good morning to you too, birthday girl." Hiccup sat next to Astrid on the floor and pulled his baby daughter into his lap before dropping a kiss on the top of her head. "How early did you wake your mommy up this morning?"

The baby's response was sticking her thumb in her mouth and giving her father a blank stare.

"About seven thirty." Astrid answered, leaning back and using her arms to support her. She didn't look more tired than usual.

"That early?" Hiccup asked. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Because you were dead to the world and you over-did it yesterday. I figured I'd let you sleep. Anyway, I don't mind waking up with her. She's a good girl." Astrid smiled at the baby and tickled her tummy, making her squeal with laughter. "Right, Kari?"

Hiccup smiled. Kari could probably wake up half the village screaming her head off and hardly anyone would care. The residents just simply adored the little girl.

Toothless sniffed the little girl carefully.

"Tooluss," Kari lisped, reaching out two little hands to clumsily pat the Night Fury's snout.

Toothless crooned softly. He liked the little human very much and she was bringing him out of his grouchiness.

Kari was a happy, healthy, and curious one year old. She was born a few weeks early, so she was on the small side, but she was growing quickly. Her hair was a whispy reddish-blonde and her eyes were the exact shade of green as her father's. She had, peculiarly enough, been born with her eyes green instead of the typical deep blue.

"Can you say 'dragon', Kari?" Hiccup asked in that gentle voice that made babies listen. "Dragon."

"Dag'n." Kari repeated to the best of her ability.

"That's right. Dragon." Hiccup smiled and tickled Kari A little, making her squeal with laughter.

He was so good with her. He loved showing and teaching her everything he could. They were almost inseparable when he was home. He'd sit her on his lap when he was doing something and try to explain to her anything he could. He was constantly showing her letters and teaching her new words ('pencil', 'map' and 'desk' to name a few), and trying to teach her how to count.

Despite all this, however, Kari's first word was 'Mama' when she was seven months old.

Astrid, surprisingly enough, was a cuddler when it came to Kari. She bounced her on her leg so much, she did it absentmindedly by this point. Astrid flipped Kari upside-down when she was in a grumpy mold to make her smile. She was the parent who put her near the edge of a puddle to teach her what a puddle was (yes, the baby splashed herself and cried, but she knew puddles were wet now). She was the kind to put a rock or a leaf or a twig in her daughter's hand to show her what it was. She got a handful of snow from outside before and put it in Kari's hands (which is how she learned the words 'snow' and 'cold').

Astrid was the outside, adventure-type teacher, while Hiccup was the explainer. Somehow, this balanced nicely. Hiccup and Astrid each encouraged (and helped with) the other's style of showing their daughter the world.

They hadn't a clue what they were doing, but somehow they were doing it right. Sure, they had a few disagreements about things, but they resolved them quickly. Their baby was learning. Their baby was smart. Their baby was happy.

And her laugh was the most precious thing in the world.

Once Kari learned to smile, she hardly stopped. Astrid's mother, Ramona, said that Kari was the happiest baby she had ever seen. Valka thought Kari was the most darling little thing.

"Do you know how old you are, Kari?" Astrid asked. "One. Can you say that? One."

"Wun."

"Such a smart birthday girl." Astrid smiled, kissing Kari's head.

Kari clumsily clapped her hands together, giggling.

"Why do you have to be so cute?" Astrid laughed, taking Kari back into her lap and tickling her everywhere. Kari's giggles filled the house.

When Kari was nearly out of breath, Astrid stopped tickling her and stood her up in front of her, holding her hands to keep her from falling on her bottom. "Are you going to stand alone today?"

Kari smiled a little.

"That can be a present to Mommy and Daddy on your birthday. Want to try?"

Kari didn't do anything.

Astrid looked at Hiccup. "What do you think, Daddy? Should we give it a shot?"

"I think we should." Hiccup replied.

Astrid slowly started letting go of Kari's hands. She cried out. She hated to fall and she knew what was coming.

"It's okay, little one." Hiccup shifted around so he could catch her before she hit the floor if she fell. "I'll catch you, I promise."

"Ready?" Astrid let go of Kari's hands completely. Kari stayed upright for a good three seconds before she lost her balance.

Hiccup caught her, as promised, and put her so she could crawl. "Getting closer, baby girl."

Kari crawled to her dragon toy at the edge of the blanket they were sitting on and started biting on the ears. She was teething and she drooled all the time. Toothless lay down to watch her play. He was a pretty good babysitter.

Hiccup pulled Astrid close to him and wrapped his arms around her.

"One crazy year, huh?"

"Almost two crazy years counting everything before that." was her reply.

He smiled and kissed her cheek. "I think we're doing pretty well, what do you think?"

"I think so too." she replied, cuddling against him.

"So... what happens now? Do we try for a boy or twins or what?"

She elbowed him roughly in the ribs.

"Ow. What was that for?" he almost whined.

"Suggesting that we could have twins."

He chuckled. "Hey, it's a very real possibility."

"If I ever have twins, you're loosing a bit of your manhood, buddy."

That shut him up.

"But, you know, in all seriousness, both of us were the only children in our families. Maybe it'd be nice to have more than one kid in the house."

"Exactly what I was thinking."

She smiled a little in Kari's direction. She was still happily gnawing her toy. "When I was little, I always wanted a sister."

"I wanted a sister too, actually."

"Not a brother?"

Hiccup scoffed. "I was convinced that if I had a brother, he'd treat me like Snotlout used to."

"Aww,"

"Don't 'aww' me."

"I'll 'aww' you if I want to. You're adorable."

"I-I'm not adorable!" he protested. "I'm extremely manly!"

Toothless snorted.

"Keep telling yourself that, babe."

"I love you guys too." Hiccup rolled his eyes and poked Astrid in the side, right in her ticklish spot, making her swat his hand away.

"Don't." she warned.

"I won't if there's a very real possibility about getting Kari a sibling in the relatively near future." he smiled mischievously.

"I'd say that there is."

He stammered a bit before asking "And if it does happen to be twins?"

"We'll cross that bridge if we get to it."

"Deal." he replied, kissing her on the lips.

"Ick."

Hiccup and Astrid both looked towards the twelve month old. She had a look of disgust on her face.

"We're icky, are we?" Hiccup asked, plucking her from the floor and flipping her, making her squeal with delight. Astrid had to laugh along with the two most important people in her life.

If they could handle an unexpected baby, they could handle anything, and if that meant a set of twins, bring it.

Hiccup stood Kari on the ground again and let go, hoping she'd stay up longer. He was wrong and she fell to the ground with a thump. She started wailing.

On second thought, perhaps not a set of twins.

A/N: Hiya everyone! Nice to see you again! I hope you enjoyed meeting Kari! She's a little cutie-pie! I think we all know Hiccup is a softy, but I think a baby would turn Astrid into a teddy bear too. Hiccup's such a dork. I love him so much.

It's thanks to my ten month old cousin that I finally finished this! I saw him yesterday and he's so stinking adorable! His giggle is officially my new favorite thing.

As I have like four cousins under the age of three at the moment (and a niece coming around Christmas), I was thinking of making a one-shot series with Hiccup, Astrid, and Kari due to all my inspiration. Would anyone be interested?

Thanks for reading and please review if you can! They mean so much!