Hiccup felt so stupid. Seriously, there were no words he could have used in order to describe how utterly stupid he felt.

He got to his feet, swaying slightly, unable to put weight on his right leg. Great, he thought to himself. Of course, it would be just my luck to hurt the one leg I have.

He looked at Toothless, who came out of the crash unharmed other than being a little shaken up.

"I don't look too beat up, do I?" he asked his dragon. Toothless growled. "Oh, good," Hiccup's shoulders slumped. "Dragon pity."

His ankle looked twisted, but other than that, fine. He didn't think he broke it; if anything, it was just a bad sprain, or possibly a small break. Nothing too serious. He didn't think he broke anything else…

Then, he made the mistake of flexing his wrist. He winced.

"Oh, well…I'm gonna be feeling this tomorrow," he said. "Yikes."

Toothless cooed in agreement.

"Dad's gonna kill me when he gets back from that trip," Hiccup groaned. "But...it's not like it's my fault, right? I mean, it was just the connecting rod, which snapped because I didn't repair the crack...and I wasn't exactly looking where I was going..."

Toothless looked at him with a satisfied expression on his face.

"You know what I mean!" Hiccup shouted angrily.

Toothless shrugged.

"You're not helping!" Hiccup snapped. The dragon had such expressive eyes that, even without speaking, Hiccup could pretty much tell exactly what he was thinking. "All I have to do is sneak through the village…"

Toothless took a step back. What?

"Hey, if people know we crashed, they'll go into hysteric mode," said Hiccup simply. "I'll find some gauze, a splint, maybe, and everything-"

Toothless gawked.

"Okay, okay, maybe I'll take it to the village healer and ask what she suggests we do if I can't take care of myself," said Hiccup. He looked up at the sky. It was already nightfall. No one would probably even notice when he flew back to the village. "Really, though, I've been through worse than a broken wrist and sprained ankle."

Toothless, although he didn't look convinced, rolled his eyes and let his rider mount him. Hiccup did so without much of a second thought.

"Okay, buddy," he said, patting his dragon's head lightly. "Let's get back to the village so I can bandage this stuff. Hopefully, none of the other riders notice the bandaging tomorrow when we go for training."

Toothless nodded, and then took off back towards the village. He barrel rolled straight through Hiccup's bedroom window, and Hiccup instantly took to taking off his boot, looking at his ankle.

It was already starting to look black and blue from bad spraining. He was able to move it, so at least he knew that it wasn't broken, but still, it was painful either way you put it. He then looked at his wrist, and then deemed it broken when he couldn't even flex it hardly, and when he could, it sent rivers of pain flooding through his being.

"Okay, so I just need some gauze…" he said, mostly to himself as he got up, limping over to his drawers and searching through them. Once he found some bandaging, he took to trying his best to bandage it. He had broken his left wrist, though, which made it hard to wrap his ankle, and even harder to wrap his hand.

He was about to give up and get to the village healer, when someone knocked on his front door. He stood to his feet, probably too fast for his liking, as his ankle screamed with pain, almost begging him to sit down again.

"Hiccup?" Astrid's voice. Oh no. "You in here?"

"No!" Hiccup called back, and then instantly hated himself for it. He just gave himself away. Darn.

"Hiccup!" Astrid called. He heard footsteps; she was coming up the stairs. "Hiccup, Snotlout made Hookfang mad again!" Astrid yelled at him, banging on the door with her fist. "He can't calm him down!"

"Go away, I'm busy!" Hiccup called, trying to think of the best way to hide his injuries from the girl.

"Hiccup, what are you doing?" Astrid asked. "This is serious! Hookfang's gonna burn down the village if someone doesn't do something soon!"

"I'll be there later, Astrid!" Hiccup shouted back. He stumbled over his ankle, though, and barely managed to grab the edge of his desk, unfortunately, with his bad hand. He cried out in pain without thinking about it, and then hoped against all odds that Astrid hadn't heard it.

"WHAT WAS THAT!?"

Oh, man. She heard it.

"Hiccup, I'm opening this door in three…" She started counting down as loud as possible. "Two…"

"I'll be right out, Astrid!" Hiccup said. He really didn't want her to know that he had crashed Toothless. It was so embarrassing in his mind. "Do not open that door!" He was trying to put the bandages away while, at the same time, trying to keep himself from moving his wrist or his leg.

"One…!" Astrid counted down anyway, and then swung the door wide open. Hiccup flopped back on his bed, running his right hand over his face. Now he was in for it.

"What is it, Hiccup!?" Astrid demanded. "Come on! We need your help with Hookfang!" She grabbed his left wrist and pulled him, instantly releasing him when he let out a scream.

She took his wrist, this time, being much more gentle as she examined it. "You broke it," she said plainly. Hiccup nodded, his head bowed. "How?" Astrid asked. The anger was gone, out of her tone entirely.

"I, um...might have…" Hiccup fought for the words to say as he looked at Astrid's expression. "...Well, there is an eighty-nine percent chance I may or may have not more or less have crashed on Toothless while looking at the ninety percent cloudy night sky. That was a more or less estimation meaning it could or could not be true. Which, I might add, is most certainly what is not what is to be looking for while talking to-"

"What?" Astrid asked. "Okay, Hiccup, now I know something is wrong. Just tell me before I go and tell Snotlout."

Hiccup's eyes widened. "You can't do that!" he said.

"Why not?" said Astrid.

"Because," said Hiccup, "he'll make fun of me!"

"No he won't!" said Astrid. "C'mon. Everyone breaks their wrists sometimes. Even me, and that's hard to believe."

Hiccup looked at her. "I don't know," he said. "It's only been a few months since the Red Death, and...and I guess I haven't really gotten used to...mattering to people."

"Mattering to people?" Astrid asked, and Hiccup nodded like a dog expecting a beating. "Hiccup, you've always mattered to us."

Hiccup was shaking his head before she had the chance to finish speaking. "No, I haven't, Astrid," he said. "I only got people to like me since I defeated the Red Death. Before that, though, I was known as Hiccup the Useless. Do people who really care about you call you Useless?"

Astrid put her finger up, opening her mouth to respond, just to freeze in that position for a moment before she shut her mouth, lowering her hand once more.

"I'm...I'm not mad, Astrid," Hiccup said. "It...it still hurts, though. I don't want things to go back to the way it was, before you guys liked me-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold up," said Astrid. "Before you guys liked me?" she repeated.

"Well, um...you didn't like me before, did you?" Hiccup asked.

"Well, I wasn't exactly fond of you...but I never hated you," said Astrid. "Maybe I just...I don't know. I was wrong, though. I was wrong for treating you the way I treated you back then. I was wrong for neglecting you, and pretending as though you were unimportant. You are important, Hiccup, and I honestly couldn't imagine life without you. You're my friend, Dragon Boy."

Hiccup smiled. "Thanks, Astrid," he said.

"So, what'd you do to your wrist?" Astrid asked.

"It's not just my wrist," said Hiccup. "It's also my...my ankle."

"You broke your ankle, too?" Astrid questioned. "What did you do?"

"Not broken, Astrid," said Hiccup. "It's just sprained. See?" He lifted his leg up onto the bed.

Astrid whistled. "Nice break," she commented.

"Sprain," Hiccup corrected.

"Sprain, right," said Astrid. She stood up, and walked over to the drawers. "You got any gauze, or bandages, or slings, or anything?" she asked.

"Top drawer, left hand side," Hiccup instructed offhandedly.

"Got it!" Astrid called after just a moment, returning to his side a moment later with gauze in hand, along with a sling for Hiccup's arm. She took his wrist again, and began wrapping it.

"You know, you can always talk to me if you hurt yourself, or anything," she said. "I want to help you, Hiccup, but I can't do that if you keep trying to keep it a secret from me. Friends are supposed to be there for one another, right?"

"Right," said Hiccup, just as Astrid tied the sling around his shoulder. She then bandaged his ankle. "And thanks, for coming," Hiccup said once she finished, "even if you were just coming to get me because of Snot...wait…" His voice trailed off, as he remembered the reason Astrid had come there in the first place.

"Oh no…" Astrid's eyes widened. "I forgot all about Hookfang!" She got to her feet, and then turned around to face Hiccup. "Don't follow me," she said.

"You came to get me because you needed my help!" Hiccup complained. "I'm coming!"

"No you're not!" said Astrid. "Toothless, don't let him out of bed."

"Unbelievable!" said Hiccup.

"I'll find some dragon nip or something," said Astrid. "It'll be fine, Hiccup. Just don't move!"

"You can't ground me!" said Hiccup. "You're not my Dad!"

"Well, I just did ground you!" said Astrid. "Deal with it!"

"You can't do that!" said Hiccup.

"Yes I can!" said Astrid with authority.

"Oh yeah!?" said Hiccup.

Astrid turned around and stared at him, her expression hard.

"Oh...yeah, okay," said Hiccup. "Continue."

Astrid smiled, and then ran out of the house. Hiccup looked at Toothless.

"Well, you know, that wasn't so bad," he said. "I'm grounded now, though."

Toothless rolled his eyes.

Author's Notes:

So, this is part of a series I'm working on called the "Unlikely Consequences" series. They're all mostly one-shots, and I don't really know how many of them there will be. But here's this! *claps* Yay!

Until next story! :)

-BeyondTheClouds777