Damaged-A Mericcup One-shot
Mericcup Week; Day One
One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure
Author's Note; Just something I wrote for the first day of Mericcup week. AU where Merida lives in Berk and is a student at the academy Hiccup founded to educate Vikings in the art of gentle dragon training. However, her first day doesn't go as planned.

Hiccup ran through town as if his life depended on it. He had heard the ruckus coming from the ring and he had no idea what to expect. Did one of younger dragons snap? Did one of the newer trainees do something wrong? A million scenarios raced through his head as he finally approached the ring. Gobber had some control over a rogue dragon—one of the youngest of the batch, Hiccup noted—while the entire school of trainers stood huddled together at the other corner of the ring. Hiccup rushed to their aid, spitting out question after question. What happened? Are you all okay? Is anyone hurt? That's when he saw the mess of ginger hair lying at the center of their circle.

"Merida!" He shouted, his voice cracking. He pushed his way through the crowd of students and kneeled down beside her. She was still alive but she wasn't responding. Hiccup continued to examine her condition until he noticed a large pool of blood forming around her feet. Stopping in his tracks, he took a deep breath before slightly lifting up the bottom of her dress. He immediately felt sick to his stomach.

Everything below her left knee was gone.

"Come on guys, we have to get her out of here," he said, lifting her head up. Hiccup wasn't strong enough to carry her on his own, so several of the students assisted in picking her up. "Alright, let's go guys." They quickly escorted her out of the ring, leaving Gobber with the crazed dragon. Moments after they left, however, he had full control of the beast. Now they had Merida to worry about.

The group carried the wounded Merida to Hiccup's house and placed her in bed. She was still unconscious, which was good. Though, they had to act fast. Hiccup commanded the students like an army captain; he ordered two to go find the town nurse, several others to alert his father and the rest to wait outside so he could think. As soon as the students had gone, Hiccup began to clean her wound.

"I am so, so sorry Merida," he said as tears formed behind his eyes, "I'm going to make this better, okay? I'll fix this, I promise."

A few minutes later the nurse came rushing in. Hiccup respectfully stepped aside as she examined Merida's wound. "She should be alright. I'll clean it and bind it." Nodding, Hiccup decided to leave the nurse-woman be as she tended to Merida. There was a large crowd forming outside his house but he simply pushed through it and ignored their pleas for answers.

Slowly, he made his way to Gobber's workshop and sat at the desk the stubborn Viking never used. Hiccup searched through his large stack of sketches, hoping to find something that could help Merida. Nothing. Angered, he kicked the desk as hard as he could, seeing as he'd feel no pain anyway. He'd feel no pain anyway. "That's it," Hiccup mumbled, "that's it." Lifting his leg up, he detached the contraption that Gobber had made and placed it on the desk. Hiccup had already created another version of it, but he had yet to use it. He was going to throw the original away, seeing as it was pretty useless to anyone else. Yet, that had all changed.

Hiccup hobbled around the entire workshop in search of his updated design. It was nearing sunset by the time he found it stuffed beneath one of the tables. Gobber must have kicked it around on accident. Quickly, Hiccup attached his new leg, grabbed his old one and rushed back to his house in hopes that Merida was awake.

His father was barricading the door to their home, which was no surprise because the crowd was still hanging about. He immediately let Hiccup in and continued his job as guard.

"Well hello there," Merida said, waving. She seemed to be in good spirits despite her condition.

"How are you feeling?" Hiccup took a seat next to the bed and kept the device on the floor so she wouldn't see it.

She shrugged, smiling softly. "I'm fine, I guess. My knee is a little confused but other than that, I'm good."

"Look, I'm so sorry," he said, "this is all my fault—"

"Stop right there," she laughed, putting a delicate hand up, "it's not your fault. It's mine. I didn't listen to what Gobber said and I freaked the dragon out. It was definitely my fault."

"Okay, so it's not my fault. But I feel awful and I really need to make it up to you—" Hiccup reached for the device he had placed on the floor and brought it up to meet Merida's eyesight, "so here. This is for you."

"W—what? But that's yours, isn't it?"

"It's yours now, Merida."

She took it from his grasp and handled it as if it was a fragile piece of art. "T—thank you Hiccup."

"I promise to make you a better one as soon as I can. I just thought it would be nice for you to have it now, you know?"

"This one is perfect," she said, placing the device on her lap, "you don't have to make a new one. I'll always treasure this one."

"O—Okay," Hiccup muttered as a small smile formed on his lips.