Chapter 5 and a half! I didn't upload them together else people always skip to the end chapter and you woulda missed all the fun there.

-HTTYD-

"I didn't want to ruin your Christmas."

Hiccup frowned, putting the letter back up on the fridge almost mechanically.

"Ok... dial back. How long have you suspected you were pregnant?" he faltered, clearly thinking "was it before, when I thought you were early?"

Valka nodded, remembering that niggle in her head that wouldn't go away.

"When you left I went straight to the pharmacy and bought a test. Well, actually I bought two. Both positive."

She really ought to shut up. But Valka didn't seem able to.

"And you didn't tell me because?"

"I wanted to be sure. So I went to the doctors... that was why I called in sick at work that day."

"And now you're totally sure, yes?"

"My blood came back positive for human chorionic gonadotropin. Better known as hCG, the hormone pregnancy tests respond to. Short of the ultrasound you know I haven't had yet, there isn't a way to be more sure."

"Ok..." Hiccup shuffled his feet awkwardly, then finished making the drinks he had started before the hot water cooled "so, question one. Are you keeping it?"

"You think I wouldnt?"

Hiccup shrugged, held out tea to her.

"Just checking, it would render further conversation pointless if you weren't."

Point taken, Valka accepted the mug.

"Yes, I am."

"Ok. Good. Question two. Do you want me involved?"

"And if I didn't?"

His breath hitched. His eyes were wet.

"I would be utterly devastated to be honest. And I couldn't even go through legal channels to fight it, because then you would lose your job."

Hiccup would choose his own heartbreak over costing her her job. He was too much.

"Hiccup, I wouldn't stop you seeing them. Ever. I just... I don't want you to feel obligated."

"You're lying."

"I'm sorry?"

When he finally looked at her again, he looked... angry. Valka had never seen him that way, not really.

"You're lying to me. That's not it at all. You think I'm too young for this. In fact, I bet I can guess the entire path you decided all alone while I had no idea."

He paced, jaw set and what Valka could only assume was an angry tear rolled down his cheek to drop from his chin.

"You think I'm too young. But you don't think I'm a bad guy. I'll be around, I'll step up and be a father. But I'm not happy about it, not properly. My life hadn't started yet and now its forever tied to a child. So you reassure me I only have to be as involved as I want. At first, that's all the time and everything seems like it'll be just fine. But I'm just a young man, and one day I'll meet a nice girl my own age and we'll want to start a family, and I won't have time for the accident baby, the mistake you and I had. So it'll just be the two of you, like you always expected right?"

Valka couldn't look at him. She was trying too hard not to cry, shoulders shaking and tears escaping.

"Yes!"

"Look at me!"

She wiped her face, dragged her eyes up to his. He looked desolate.

"How could you think so little of me? I thought you knew me better... that I meant more than that to you."

"I-I don't. Gods Hiccup" she wiped her face again, throat thick with emotions clogging her words up "I have to think that! Don't you see? I have to be prepared for the fact that one day I'll lose you."

Hiccup surged across the room, kissed Valka so hard she forgot she was crying. Couldn't tell who's tears she could taste as he pinned her.

"You bloody stupid woman!"

Hiccup kissed her again before Valka could protest, though she could swear he was smiling as he did it.

"You impossible... mad woman!"

"What did I do?"

Hiccup cupped her cheeks, ignoring how awful she must look after crying.

"Did it never occur to you" kiss "not even once" kiss "that I might be thrilled?"

It was very difficult to speak in turn when Hiccup kept kissing the air from her lungs. It was hard to think when he was pressed so close to her.

"N-no. I couldn't dare dream that way."

"Why not?"

"Because..." Valka didn't want to bare her heart the way he was asking, but it was too late; he was too deep under her skin "because I was falling for you. And I couldn't bear to hope."

Before she could wriggle free to die of shame, Hiccup was kissing her again. Fingers in her stupid greying hair, thumbs swiping treacherous tears from her cheeks. He kissed her until she was dizzy, then a little more for good measure. His breath was hot on her face as they parted, panting himself but somehow able to speak while she was kept standing only by his body holding hers up.

"I repeat. Stupid woman. Did you really think there was never a chance I wanted more than sex from you?"

"Frankly? Yes. I'm seventeen years your senior. I'm your teacher for another seven and a half months. I'm divorced. One day I'll not be able to keep up with you."

Hiccup's next words almost floored her.

"And I will love you then as I do now. Probably more."

"You- I- what?"

"I love you, you impossible idiot. I love you when you fidget in your sleep and your hair ends up over everything. I love you when you teach, when you paint. I love you even when you steal my cake. I adore everything about you."

It couldn't be true... Valka couldn't have come so close to ruining all of this could she?

"Then why not say something?"

"You're always bringing up how young I am. I worried you would always consider me too immature to be serious with... so I settled for what we had. Because that was pretty damn spectacular. Guess the little one had other ideas about letting us live in ignorance, huh?"

"Are you still going to want me when I'm fat and grumpy and eating icecream by the tub?"

"You mean will I still adore you as you carry our baby? Damn fucking straight I will. Hel, I'll go out at 3am to four different open-all-nights to find the right flavour if it'll make you smile."

Valka wanted to believe all of it, she truly did. But there was a major point to bring up.

"And when I can't have sex? Or even don't want it?"

Hiccup actually chuckled, hands sliding down her arms to link their fingers.

"I have hands. I can buy a toy if I'm real hard up. My ego will survive. And there will a teeny tiny human to take care of. Will you stop trying to create reasons why I shouldn't want you and love you, and just accept that I do? We can work out the rest along the way."

He was incredibly hard to say no to.

"Alright."

"Thank you."

"Hiccup?"

"Yes?"

"Take me to bed."

He smirked, gripping her hand tightly.

"Your wish is my command."

It took a while for them to actually reach the bedroom, on account of Hiccup periodically pinning her to walls and stairs and doorframes to kiss her senseless. Her tunic-shirt was left somewhere on the staircase, Hiccup's jumper on the floor by the spare room. He reached for her hair tie before they got on the bed, freeing her hair and running fingers gently through it.

"You are so beautiful. You're smart and sexy and strong, and you made me feel human again."

Hiccup murmured against her neck, fingers stroking down her spine to dip beneath her skirts waistband.

"What do you mean?"

"Before you my life was just a cycle of walk Toothless, work with dad and stay at home. If I didn't live with Eret, I would have been alone a lot of the time. I was always afraid to get close to people, to show my scars inside and out. You fit into all my broken parts and made me whole again."

He had always seemed so vibrant, but then Valka supposed she had only seem him surrounded by art or mostly-alone with her. Maybe that was all that brought him out of that shell.

"You crept under my skin and changed me completely."

"I didn't change a thing Valka. I just showed you who you already were. And was lucky enough to reap the benefits of your self discovery."

Any further argument was silenced by his lips on hers, fingers slowly working the rest of her clothes off. Valka whined in protest, urged at his until Hiccup shed his t-shirt, dropped his jeans. Before he tumbled them to the bed, Hiccup looked up at her face again.

"Hows your morning sickness? I don't want to jostle you."

Hardly romantic, and yet the fact he asked was rather wonderful.

"Only really a problem first thing, I'm feeling quite wonderful right now."

"Sore anywhere?"

"No."

"Good."

Hiccup placed hands just above her thighs, boosted Valka onto the bed and descended on the body clad only in cotton briefs with all his usual eagerness. Gods had she missed him, and how she adored knowing he wanted her too. Not for fun. For real.

Odin, she hadn't even told him yet.

"Hiccup!"

Her voice changed pitch as Hiccup bit down gently on her neck, threatening to mark but stopping just short.

"Yeah?"

"I love you too."

His answering smile was blinding, the heat of his kiss blistering as he sealed their mouths together and buried his fingers in her hair.

"You're perfect."

Spectacularly skilled in the art of preventing Valka from arguing with him, Hiccup had fingers pressed to her clit before she could formulate a rebuttal. Words were lost to a needy whine as he touched damp fabric, stroked her the way he knew would make her squirm and pant. She could feel him hard against her thigh, needed him inside her as soon as possible.

Valka tugged at his boxers, Hiccup thankfully taking the wordless hint and shucking them. Her underwear joined his in being discarded on the floor, bodies bare against each other as Hiccup nudged her further up the bed until she reclined on the pillows. She reached for him; Hiccup responded by leaning closer so Valka could grab his shoulders, latch on to his mouth.

"Need you."

Her breathless plea was answered swiftly, Hiccup brushing fingers between her thighs to check she was ready before pressing closer, lifting her leg up around his hip to open her up to him. He filled her perfectly, his cock sliding home within her until both were trembling, reaching to anchor themselves against the other. They'd been having sex for months; now they were making love and it was a whole new realm of intense.

"Fuck I love you Valka."

Hiccup breathed the words over her mouth, kissed her as she wrapped her legs around him properly, held his lean body tight against hers. Valka buried her hands in his hair, kissed him in return.

"I love you too."

He smiled, gasped as she shifted slightly to cradle him better. Gone were any nerves between them, both wearing their scars with a pride only to be shared with the other. Hiccup's hand caressed a breast, gentling in case she was sore before continuing on down her waist to squeeze at a soft hip.

His first thrusts took her breath away, the next ensuring she never quite got it back. Hiccup made her moan, buck, arch and thrash shamelessly, losing any care for how wanton and desperate she looked now she knew - he was there for all that, he wanted her uninhibited passions and worked hard to earn them from her.

Valka gave herself to him again and again, and Hiccup never abused that trust. Their bodies twined tighter, his chest against her breasts as his hips rocked and rolled into her with deep, steady thrusts that lit Valka on fire. It was a slow burn, spreading heat to to the tips of her fingers and toes until she was molten, putty in his hands.

Knowing fingers slid around her sweaty thigh, pressed against her clit as Hiccup's thrusts moved a little quicker; he was close, wanted her to peak before he lost himself to her body. Valka smirked up at him, squeezed tight around him and Hiccup growled as he realised it was intentional. He tugged her hand free of it's white-knuckle grip on the bedframe, guided her own fingers to her clit and Valka shuddered at the feelings inspired.

"S-say it."

Valka would have been embarrassed of her request if she weren't so close it hurt, the climax lingering just out of reach. Hiccup responded to her instantly, leaning down and biting lightly at the shell of her ear before whispering.

"I love you."

She broke, quaked and clung to him as the pleasure tore through her, made her go to pieces while Hiccup held her together. Watching her rarely failed to bring Hiccup alongside her to pure bliss, and today was no different as he came with a choked growl of primal pleasure.

Sheets twisted around sweaty limbs, Valka panted and trembled as Hiccup hauled her against his rapidly moving chest, kissed her damp hairline and smiled as she burrowed closer. She wasn't losing him; everything was very very good right now.

"You are a truly remarkable woman Valka."

"Mmm."

Hiccup chuckled at her lazy hum of "I'm not talking or moving ever again", stroking her sweaty back.

"Thank you, by the way."

"For?"

His hand trailed down and around, long fingers resting against her belly.

"Best Christmas gift ever."

"My mother is terribly excited."

It was remarkable he heard her, her words all but spoken right into his chest.

"She's not the only one. My dad will be thrilled to bits. And I'm already excited."

"Seriously?"

Hiccup nodded eagerly as Valka cracked open an eye to peer up at him.

"Yep. Because there are two things I am very, very sure of."

Valka regretfully sat up a little more, looked at her... boyfriend? properly.

"Which are?"

Hiccup rolled them, legs tangling with hers as he kissed her.

"You are going to be an amazing mother. And from one artist to another... I reckon we'll make a masterpiece."

-HTTYD-

This has been such a fun experiment in new dynamics, but alas! It is time to move on.