Author's notes

I started this story on AO3 but I decided to also post it here. There is a one-shot prequel to this story titled "Prelude to Summer" also reposted here. A number of the events of this story are taken from the movie and TV series but expect things to veer off quite a bit at times. As someone whose confidence as a writer is largely alcohol-induced, I would immensely appreciate any and all comments or criticism you guys have to offer. Anyhow, I hope y'all enjoy! If not, feel free to say why.

Hiccup found it a little disorienting to wake up and find the world around him entirely different from how he had left it. A mere three days had passed since the battle with the Red Death, he would later find out, though it may as well have been three years for all that things had changed in his absence.

The first of many surprises was of course waking up to find Toothless at his bedside, in his house of all places, smiling that goofy gummy grin at the sight of his lover waking up. The moment he sat up, the dragon's "lips" pressed firmly against his own, the desperation of his kiss betraying just how anxious he had been, and how relieved he now was. The moment lasted for a few seconds before Hiccup broke off, glancing around anxiously, for a brief second worried that someone might have been around to see their kiss. With no one in sight, Hiccup breathed a long overdue sigh of relief.

They were alive! They defeated the Red Death! They'd gotten through it all unharmed!

Well, mostly unharmed.

It only took a moment for Hiccup to realize something wasn't quite right. Bringing his legs off the side of the bed, Hiccup found the left one suddenly pulled down by an unexpected weight, producing a dull metallic thud as it hit the wooden floor. At the base of his leg, or at least what was left of it, he found an odd little device: an s-shaped bar of metal screwed to a wooden mount that fixed the strange prosthetic just below his knee. Toothless examined the device wistfully, sensing his partner's discomfort.

It was a bit much, he supposed, to ask to come out of that completely unscathed.

Hiccup gave a bleak glance at the offending limb dangling awkwardly from his body, thinking towards what it meant for the days to come. Trying to put any pressure on it left him wincing at the dull pain that it sent up through his leg. The weight felt foreign and the sheer lack of sensation beneath his knee as it touched the floor was disconcerting.

Still, he couldn't just spend the rest of his life in bed. At the very least he'd been out of commission for some time, and he needed some assurance that he hadn't gone full Rip Van Winkle.

Bracing himself against the headboard, Hiccup clumsily pulled himself up off the bed to stand upright, only to have his leg threaten to give way beneath him with each aching step. Sure enough, it soon made good on its threat and Hiccup's left knee buckled, causing him to gracelessly topple forward.

Before Hiccup could even register what had happened, Toothless had caught him. The dragon offered a concerned trill as he glanced up at his wounded friend.

"Thanks, buddy," the boy hissed through the discomfort as he struggled to regain stable footing. Toothless chirred sadly, though he was all too happy to offer himself as a makeshift crutch. Together the pair made their way toward the front door, one clumsy step at a time. Thank Odin that they'd had the sense not to put him in his own bed on the second floor.

The door groaned on its rusted hinges, swinging wide to reveal a scene Hiccup could have only ever dreamed of. The village was alive with sound and motion, vibrant with the energy of Vikings and dragons alike, intermingled as they went about their business. It was a far cry from the dreary, miserable Berk he was so accustomed to. He had difficulty believing that all this could be real, but the nagging pain in his leg continued to assure him that he wasn't dreaming.

Standing before the entrance to his house, he looked out over the heart of Berk wide-eyed and dumbfounded. Outside it still felt like summer, or what passed for summer in Berk anyway. Summer on Berk was always criminally short. For a month or two at most, the weather was truly comfortable, sometimes even warm if the conditions were right, but it was rarely more than a fleeting glimpse at what life was like in a more palatable clime. To Hiccup, it meant that he couldn't have been unconscious for more than a few days, leaving him with enough summer to… watch from the sidelines while he got used to his new leg. Well, that was a depressing thought. At least the Summer's End Festival would probably be fun, he figured.

Soon enough Hiccup and Toothless found themselves at the center of everyone's attention. The villagers who passed by were quick to shower the pair with praise and accolades. The same people who had so bitterly criticized and ostracized him as a worthless failure were now lauding him as "Hiccup the Hero," "Hiccup the Hope of Berk," and "Hiccup the Dragon Conqueror." He wasn't terribly enamored with that last one, but it was certainly better than some of his older nicknames.

Sure enough, a crowd started to materialize before them, uncomfortably reminding Hiccup of his unwarranted popularity during his brief reign as champion of the Dragon Fighting Arena. He remembered less than fondly the adulating swarms of fickle villagers whose opinions of him had all changed at the drop of a hat. Well, okay, this was more or less an overnight change too, but at least he'd actually done something praiseworthy this time.

"So, what do you think?" The gentle yet hearty tone was one that Hiccup rarely heard from his father, but it was still enough to startle him when the giant man seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"I don't know what to say; I never dreamed something like this would be possible." He met his father's eyes, deep emerald like his own. Pride. It radiated from every part of the older man's body, focused in his eyes like a ray of light through a lens. Hiccup himself felt a tingling, bubbling feeling welling up from the pit of his chest, spurring his face into a beaming grin.

"Son," Stoick began, getting a little uncharacteristically choked up, "I'm truly proud of you. I'm proud of what you and Toothless did for Berk, what you did for all of us. And…" He paused just as the tone of his voice began to wax somber and remorseful, bringing his son into his embrace. "I wanted to say I'm sorry for not listening to you, for not trusting you before."

"Fath-Dad, I'm sorry, too," Hiccup responded in kind, bringing his arms around his father, or around as much of him as he could reach at least. "For not being honest with you, and, well, not giving you a reason to trust me." The difference in size and Hiccup's awkward attempts at staying balanced with his new leg left the father-son moment looking a bit lopsided, but the sentiment was all that mattered, right? Up until this point, their relationship had been rocky at best and downright confrontational at its worst, but perhaps now they could finally begin repairing the tenuous bond between them.

The village was proud. His father was proud. Most importantly he was proud, proud that he and his closest companion had been able to set things right, to come out on top, to make peace between Vikings and dragons. In his father's words, he and Toothless were the "bridge between worlds," and there was nary a relationship in Viking history more important than theirs.

Hiccup turned to look at the dragon at his side, his first and dearest friend, and the love of his life. Perhaps he'd lost his leg that day, but at least he hadn't lost anything really important.

Thanks for reading!

Comments, questions, concerns, and all that jazz are highly encouraged!