Chapter 9

"Honey!!!!" Hiccup shouted from the driveway towards the house as the kids peeked out of the SUV window. "We're going to be late!"

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Astrid said as she walked out of the house and locked the door behind her, her handbag nearly getting caught in the doorframe. "And we are not late. Your parents are expecting us in an hour." she then quipped.

"They are expecting us in thirty minutes," Hiccup corrected and then asked as he spotted his wife walking barefoot towards the car while holding a pair of flats in her hands. "Why aren't you wearing any shoes?"

"My nail polish is still drying," Astrid told Hiccup as she opened the door and settled into her seat. Hiccup started the car and put it in reverse easily. As they were backing out of their driveway Nuffink spoke up "DAAAADDD I HAVE TO PEE!" The six-year-old exclaimed which caused Hiccup to slam on the breaks and groan.

Hiccup handed Zephyr his set of house keys and said in a firm voice "Both of you go now."

"But I don't have to go," Zephyr protested.

"Both of you," Hiccup stated again as the children quickly got out and raced towards the door. He knew his kids. They would be halfway to his parents when Zephyr would need a bathroom break. He just knew it.

Hiccup looked to his left and saw Astrid rifling through her purse. She smiled triumphantly when she found her jar of Aloe skin care lotion. It always seemed to slip to the bottom of her bag Hiccup noted. What he also noted was that Astrid's right foot was suddenly on his dashboard and she was applying the cream with practiced ease. He should be used to his wife's quirks by now but he still couldn't help blushing when he sneaked a peek at her legs.

"We can have some.... Quality time later," Astrid smirked and Hiccup turned as red as a tomato because she had caught him looking. The blush reached the tip of his ears and Astrid gave him a quick peck on the cheek as the kids were running back to the fan. "Love you too babe."

Zephyr had handed her dad his keys back and the Haddocks were thus on their way to grandma's and grandpa's place for the Saturday.

Hiccup frowned when they were on the highway, he could hear his radio. That meant that the car was quiet. The car, containing his kids, was quiet. In this case quiet wasn't a good sign. "Honey...." Hiccup asked and Astrid looked up from her scrolling through Buzzfeed. "Don't you think it's unusually quiet?" He asked as he really didn't want to think of the horror that could probably be happening in the backseat.

Astrid frowned and then looked back. There was an intake of breath and Hiccup could just imagine Astrid's eyes either widening or narrowing. "Zephyr Marie Haddock! What the hell did you do to your brother?!"

'Oh, full name used,' Hiccup thought. Then Astrid's eyes had been narrowing.

"Honey what happened?"

"Hiccup keep your eyes on the road," Astrid warned. "We'll fix this once we get to your parents' place."

"Fix what?!" Hiccup asked though he duly kept both hands on the wheel and his eyes straight forward. Astrid's tone right now was one that promised serious consequences if you crossed it but that didn't mean that he wasn't curious.

He took a quick peek in the rearview mirror but could only see the top of Zephyr's head. "Give it here young lady," Astrid ordered as her hand was stretched out. When she turned back around he noticed that Astrid had Zephyr's pack of coloring markers in her hand. She then placed the markers in the dashboard.

"Did she color on the seats again?" Hiccup asked. "She better have not." The last time the markers had been a pain to get out of the upholstery.

"She didn't draw on the seats," Astrid sighed. "You'll see when we get there. The exit is coming up."

Hiccup nodded though the curiosity was killing him and maybe a bit of trepidation too.

The Haddocks arrived at the gated community where Stoick and Valka lived. The guards on duty already knew who they were so they let them through easily.

"These houses are sooooo boring," Zephyr grumbled as she looked out the window just as Nuffink yawned. Hiccup realized that he must have slept nearly the whole car ride here. "Dad, why did gramps and granny move here?"

The beige houses did indeed look rather boring Hiccup mentally noted before answering his daughter "Well Zeph, grandma had a bit of trouble with the solicitors in the last place they lived. They were rather forceful and kept trying to sell her things so she threw one of those old Nokia phones at them." Even Astrid winced. Those things were made like a brick afterall.

"Where did Valka even get one of those?" His wife asked with a frown.

"Oh, she was cleaning out the garage to make room for the canoe at the time." Hiccup replied as he parked the car along the sidewalk of one of the houses under the shade of a large tree.

Astrid blinked and then blinked again in confusion. "Your parents don't canoe."

"Eh.... yeah," Hiccup gave a nervous chuckle. "Dad was going through a bit of a mid-life crisis. Remember when you were still pregnant with Nuff and he came walking in wearing an ascot."

"The day he went blond?!" Astrid's eyes widened and boy, was that a day. Stoick had gotten some weird idea that he would have looked better as a blond and proceeded to bleach his beard. Valka nearly had a coronary.

"Yeah, he bought the canoe around that time." Hiccup supplied.

Astrid hadn't known about the canoe but things made so much more sense now when she had once found Stoick trying on a wetsuit. "I did not need that image in my head," Hiccup heard his wife mutter as he stepped out and opened the sliding door of the SUV to let the kids out. However, he promptly stopped as he got a look at Nuffink's face. Half of it, presumably the half that he hadn't been laying on while asleep, was covered in drawings. "Zephyr we do not draw on people's faces!"

"He deserved it. He stole my BunBun last night!" Zephyr said as she stepped out of the car while Hiccup checked to see if the markers could be wiped off.

"We do not draw on people's faces young lady!" Hiccup admonished and then turned to Nuffink "And you. You know better than to grab your sister's stuffed animals."

"But I needed it," Nuffink whined as he tugged on Hiccup's arm.

"For whatever reason would you need a giant stuffed octopus?!"

"Space invaders!" The boy declared proudly while his sister rolled her eyes.

"Grampa!" Both kids then shouted and raced past Hiccup and into Stoick's arms as he came out of the house to greet them.

"Oof," Stoick exclaimed as he hefted both kids up in his arms. "Oh my. You two have gotten big!" He chuckled.

"Hey dad," Hiccup greeted, with Astrid also giving a greeting.

"You guys are just in time." Stoick said. "Valka and I just finished setting up the trampoline and Gobber has the grill going."

"TRAMPOLINE YESSSS!" the kids exclaimed happily and Stoick put them down so they could run into the house.

"Gobber is here too?" Hiccup asked as he and Astrid followed Stoick inside as well.

"Of course he is. He's cooking," Stoick said so matter-of-factly as if it was common. He then leaned closer to Hiccup to whisper "Do ya really think I'd let yer mother get close to my new propane grill?"

Hiccup nodded as he remembered Thanksgiving '03. That had been both thrilling and.......... Nerve-Wracking. The Fire Marshal had called it an implausible feat.

Hiccup greeted his mother in the living room where she and Astrid were busy wiping Nuffink's face with baby wipes to get the markers off.

"Stoick there ya are!" Came a voice from the back and all eyes turned to Gobber who hobbled inside while carrying....... A plastic pink flamingo????

"Skullcrusher and Cloudjumper keep using this here to play tug of war." Gobber grumbled as he put the lawn ornament in Stoick's hands. "I nearly tripped over them when I turned to grab the sirloin!"

Hiccup stifled a laugh. Skullcrusher and Cloudjumper were the very large and hairy dogs his parents owned. Skullcrusher was a Tibetan Mastiff while Cloudjumper was a Newfoundland. Speaking of dogs, the heavy paws Hiccup heard running in their direction right now caused Zephyr to shout in glee before she launched herself at the giant hairballs. This was going to be an interesting BBQ day.