"Hiccup," a voice called gently.

Half asleep, the lanky man yawned in his wooden bed, arms stretching out beside him. Rubbing his green eyes, he lazily winked them open. Tuffnut, Snotlout, and Fishlegs' wide, unblinking eyed stared down at him like he was a meal for a pack of wolves.

"Aaaaaggghhh!!!" screamed the Chief, who instinctively shot up in his bed, smacking heads with one of the other men in his room. Hiccup cried out in pain from the head injury, and in the excitement he lost his balance, sending the man slamming into the floor, bed sheets and all.

The three standing men strode to surround the brunet where he lay on the floor. "Uh," Tuffnut asked, "Hiccup?"

He struggled to to speak between breaths as he squirmed out of the sheets. "What are—you all—doing here?" Hiccup finally got to his feet, tossing the sheets onto the bed. "And why in Thor's name were you watching me in my bed?!"

Snotlout rolled his eyes. "Duh! We're supposed to help you get ready for your wedding." The black-haired man covered a side of his mouth with his hand, whispering to Fishlegs and Tuff, "I thought Hiccup was smart."

"He's just nervous," added Tuffnut loudly.

"I'm not nervous," Hiccup slipped off his pants to replace them with a new pair, with the addition of a green tunic. He snatched is metal prosthetic from his side table, beginning to fit it on. "Why would you think that? I love Astrid."

"Oh, sure, now you do," Tuff started. "Just wait until you're a middle-aged man who can't stand to be in the same bed as the woman you thought you wanted to spend the rest of your life with because she doesn't want you out late when you just want to go out for a ride on your dragon, but she just doesn't want to lose you because  you've been doing chief duties very late and she thinks you're pushing her away so you get mad at her and she gets mad at you and you both end up regretting the lifelong promise you made to each other and a few moons later you find yourself living in Not-So-Silent Sven's spare room with Phil the sheep!" The wild gleam in his eyes and sudden outburst forced the other three men to become silent and wide-eyed.

Calming his heavy breaths, Tuffnut recomposed himself and rubbed the back of his neck, flashing a sheepish grin. "You and Astrid won't end up like that, though, H."

Fishlegs piped up. "What are you talking about? There's always been a Hiccup and Astrid. You guys are forever!"

Hiccup, at last dressed fully in his black and brown leather armour and sporting his metal leg. "Guys, I'm not going to end up a middle-aged man who can't stand to—whatever it is you just said—because I'm marrying Astrid," he strode to the door of his room. Snotlout, Fishlegs, and Tuffnut followed.

At the bottom of the stairs was the main floor. The area was simple: a wooden table to eat at during meal time, a larger than life chair meant for the late Chief, and a fireplace freshly cleaned from soot. A few axes and shields decorated the walls, however several pieces of meat were hung up as well; a fair amount of floor space was taken up by unnamed barrels and bags filled with produce.

A stew still hung over the embers of a once blazing fire, but now the ashes only kept the meal warm. Valka, his long-lost mother, must have made it for him, knowing how busy he could be today. Hiccup swiped a remaining loaf of bread from the table. "Right. Let's get ready then."

~ ~ ~

"What's taking so long?" Snotlout groaned as the men, now with the addition of Eret, in his usual sleeveless, tan fur vest. They were all huddled just outside the bath house, waiting for Hiccup to unclothe in the other room and enter the steamy tub they had prepared for him inside. The steam bath was a symbolic ceremony to wash away Hiccup's bachelorhood, necessary before any wedding.  "That's it, I'm going in there!"

"You wouldn't." Eret asked, more a statement than a question, but Snotlout was already in the other room, the cries of protest clearly expressing Hiccup's lack of gratitude. "Wait, what are you—Stop that! Wha—Hey! Don't touch me there!" his shouts were stifled as he was tossed none too gently into the wooden tub.

The man was abruptly flung through the threshold and fell to his hands and knees, dusting himself off as he stood. "The groom," the dark-haired man gestured with a hand to the doorway, bowing slightly for added affect, "is ready."

Fishlegs merely rolled his eyes as they entered the bath house. Eret couldn't help but quirk a lopsided smirk.

The bath house was uncomfortable warm. Heated stones surrounded the tub, steaming the water poured on it to create a misty haze that failed to effectively hide Hiccup's submerged body. He subtly maneuvered in the water to conceal himself. "Relax, Chief," Eret drawled, slapping him on his freckled back. "It's just us."

Hiccup huffed. "Yeah. That's what I'm worried about."

"Come on, it's not like you have anything to be ashamed of." Arms crossed, Snotlout grinned, his eyes glancing to the water before they darted back to Hiccup's face. His smile turned sour as the brunet retorted, "Just remember what you lost the last time you came up against 'Thor's mighty hammer.'" Snotlout reflexively covered his mouth with a hand, muttering what was most likely unintelligible profanities.

"Something you two want to tell us?" Eret raised a dark eyebrow.

"What?" Tuffnut looked between the three of them, unable to piece together their conversation. "Are they keeping something a secret? I want to know! Are you all in a secret club of secrets? Why don't I know about it?" Tuff smacked himself with the palm of his hand. "Duh! It's a secret!"

The rest of the men didn't even bat an eye. "I was talking about my fist," emphasized Hiccup, going slightly red in embarrassment and anger. "And if that were the case, why in Odin's name would I be marrying Astrid?" Why he didn't voice was that if it were true, he could do a lot better than Snotlout, of all people.

"You are the Chief. Expectations have to be met."

The Chief rolled his eyes. "Just hand me the soap."

"Speaking of baths," Fishlegs at last chimed in while Hiccup wet the bar, "aren't some of the Elders supposed to—"

The door bust in, sending Snotlout, who was standing just in front of it, reeling into the nearby wall. "Son! What are you doing there? This isn't the time to be fooling around!" Spitelout scolded his son as he entered the bath house, followed by some of the other married village men. Hiccup felt violated; there were too many people in there watching him bathe for his liking.

"Oww!" Screeched Snotlout, who had finally removed his hand from his mouth. "My face isn't broken, is it?"

Hiccup's gaze roamed across the room. Bucket, Mulch, Fearless Finn, Not-So-Silent Sven, and Gobber all squeezed their large frames through the threshold.

"Hello, Chief," greeted Mulch as Bucket waved.

Sven's thick moustache bristled as he spoke. "Hiccup. Good to see you."

The Chief smiled at them uneasily. Yes, definitely too many people.

"Here, boyo, give me that," Spitelout snatched the soap from Hiccup's hand and grasped him by the wrist, holding it up to wash his underarms.

"Uh, Spitelout?" the Chief started. "What are you doing? In fact, what are all of you doing here?"

Gobber, with his left arm long lost in the belly of a dragon, plunged his prosthetic into the steam bath and began scrubbing Hiccup's chest with the sponge decorating its end. "It's tradition! Didn't you listen at all when I was telling you the other evening when you were fixing your foot?"

The lanky man chuckled nervously. "Oh. Yeah." His thoughts drifted back to several days ago. Hiccup certainly remembered Gobber telling him something about the wedding, however he was a bit preoccupied playing monkey-in-the-middle with Barf and Belch trying to get his spare foot he was repairing back. "I was a bit distracted," he grinned sheepishly.

Halting his movements, Gobber glared at Hiccup and brandished his sponge appendage at the young Chief. "Well don't be distracted now. We've all come to you about our experiences. You need to know these things before you seal the deal tonight!"

Hiccup cringed. "Uh, Gobber? No offense, but I don't want to know about all of your experiences. Oww!" cried Hiccup when Gobber whacked him on the head with the sponge. He shot Gobber a hurt glance as he rubbed the spot on his head.

"Not those experiences!"

"You've never even been married, Gobber? You told me it...wasn't your thing."

"Just because it's not my thing as you call it, doesn't mean I've never been with a woman." He had a far away look in his eyes, one that made Hiccup, along with the other dragon riders, grow very curious.

"Gobber?" It was Fishlegs who provoked him into sharing.

"Ah, Betty. She was my first love. Big girl, she was. I liked her like that. Not like those twigs you see nowadays—no offense, Hiccup. I always got so nervous when I was around her; my palms got all sweaty, I got really fidgety. I even grew my moustache for her when I heard she preferred moustaches! Ah, those were the days." His eyes hazed over and a smile crept up his face.

Until Snotlout jabbed him with a stubby finger. "So? What happened? You can't just stop talking like that and leave us hanging?"

"If I didn't know any better," Eret smirked, meeting Fishlegs' gaze. The blonde man wore the same mischievous grin, angling toward Snotlout. "I'd say Snotlout is a bit of a romantic," the other man finished.

"Ha!" Snotlout barked, "As if!" He puffed out his chest and rested his hand on his hips. "I'm the least romantic person ever! Flowers? Gross! Acts of kindness! Yeah, right!" Pivoting away from the group, he crossed his arms, adding a final, "Don't even get me started on..." Snotlout shuddered, "...commitment."

"Well, I finally plucked up enough courage to admit my feelings," Gobber pulled up his belt, ignoring Snotlout's words of denial. "I picked these flowers from halfway across the island, greased my hair back, and took a bath." Murmurs rose up in the room. Gobber never took a bath. It was a village effort to get him clean; the thought of Gobber bathing himself willingly? It was unheard of. He must've really liked Betty.

"And?" Tuffnut egged him on. "She said yes, right?"

"Oh, no," admitted Gobber. "She turned me down like a yak with a newborn calf. She broke my teenage heart. I couldn't fought so horribly in dragon killing class the instructor gave me an H-."

The younger men glanced unsure at each other, while the older Vikings hissed in sympathy.

"H-?" Bucket asked, as if he hadn't hear correctly.

"Horrific. Yes."

"How long was it?" Hiccup asked. His hair clung to the side of the freckled features of his face, and he brushed the damp mop out of his face. "Before you moved on?"

Gobber's laugh boomed. "Oh, I got over her soon enough. It wasn't until her wedding that I realized she always had a hideous scowl on her face. Made her look pretty ugly." He sighed, as if he were a mouse that had just now escaped the talons of Big Betty. "I felt bad for the poor bloke who married her, though!" The short, bald man chuckled to himself.

Spitelout interrupted, breaking everyone's attention on Gobber and turning it to himself. "You don't even have a wife! Your stories are no help! Let me tell you what it's really like to be with a woman, boyo." Hiccup groaned inwardly.

This was going to be an interesting morning.

~ ~ ~

Hey guys! So I've noticed there's a lot of Hiccstrid wedding fanfics but none of them really depict an accurate Viking wedding (or an accurate HTTYD wedding, for that matter). So I started this thing to work on while I had writer's block on my other stuff that I would put up when I was finished, but then I realized I'm impatient and I don't really care. So now it's posted! Don't expect regular updates because this is just one of my secondary priorities. I have no idea how long it will be until this is updated next.

This isn't strictly a Hiccstrid story, though. It may be about their wedding, but I'm also writing about the other dragon riders as well! If you've already read the description then you know what I mean ;) You'll also get glimpses of a lot of old characters, so that'll be fun, too!

Another thing. So Gobber can totally be gay and have liked women in the past so...that's that.

Thank you for reading everyone! - TGD