Little Miracles

Hand Signals

Chapter Four: Hand Signals

"Roll over!"

"That's right! What's this one?"

"Umm... pwasma bwast?"

"No, Finn, that's stretch out your wings."

"Ohh yeah!"

Hiccup smiled at his eager children who were both leaning forward, completely engrossed in the little quiz he was giving them. They were never too young to learn hand signals for the dragons they would have one day. And they were already becoming very good at remembering them. Oddly enough, it was Adrianna's attention span that tended to be too short for long lessons (it wasn't that she didn't want to learn, she just had a tendency to stare off into space and forget to listen). Finn was more forgetful but he was getting much better at knowing which signal was which.

"Addie, what's this one?" Hiccup asked, making his hand into what he hoped looked enough like a mouth with teeth for Adrianna to recognize.

"Umm... bite?" she asked, looking unsure.

"That's right!" said her father, his smile widening. "And Finn, what's this one?"

Finn stared at him for almost a minute. "I don't wemembew."

"Nah, you wouldn't. I just made it up. It's the tickle Finn sign!" Hiccup exclaimed, reaching out and grabbing his little boy around the middle.

Finn let out a shriek of laughter, flailing his arms and legs around in an attempt to get away from his father's nimble fingers. Adrianna giggled, inching away from the spectacle as if hoping her daddy wouldn't focus his attention on her next. Of course, that was exactly what he did. She let out a squeal and tried to run away but he was too quick for her. He reached over and pulled her in, tickling her as fiercely as he could without hurting her. He loved the sound of his children laughing but Adrianna's giggles were special. He had been delighted to notice that she didn't just hiccup when she cried, she also hiccupped when she laughed hard enough. This was a trait he hoped she would never outgrow and at this rate, it didn't look like she would.

When the toddlers finally calmed down, Hiccup brought them in for a tight hug.

"I love you. Both of you." He said, kissing both children on the cheek as he did this.

He made it a point to remind them that he loved them often. Stoick was a good man and, truthfully, hadn't been too bad a father all things considered but Hiccup had always wished his father had told him he loved him more often. Stoick was the type to show his love for Hiccup rather than tell him. Now that he was a father, Hiccup didn't want his children to ever doubt his love for them and was determined to tell them he loved them as much as he could.

Finn let go first and bounded into another room without saying anything. This was no surprise to Hiccup; he'd joked that his son was a struggler while his daughter was a snuggler. Astrid rolled her eyes at the pun but he insisted on using it no matter how ridiculous it sounded. Adrianna let go a moment later but only to put her little hands on his shoulder and stare him right in the eye.

"I love you, daddy." she said quite seriously, as if this was the most important thing she had ever said to anyone.

Hiccup smiled in response. "I love you too, Addie. Now I'm sure Finn is off causing mayhem. We'd better go after him!"

The little girl giggled and held out her hand. He took it in his and marveled at how tiny it was compared to his. And then they walked into the other room to make sure Finn truly hadn't gotten into any trouble.

Xxx

The twins were being watched by Lotus that evening as Hiccup and Astrid attended a tribe meeting. They almost weren't paying attention at all. Hiccup was engrossed in making a perfect, to-scale stuffed Night Fury. He had spent a little extra money to get the softest material so Adrianna could almost use the stuffed dragon as a pillow. He made sure all the threads were black so that they would blend into the body of the dragon without being distracting. He wanted to make a Night Fury that looked just like Toothless. And with the amount of work he was putting into it, it was coming out quite nicely.