So, I've come to a decision: I will make this a series of shorter drabbles I wrote at random that can't be turned into one-shots. To me, one-shots are 1,700 words and more, and drabbles are under that number. Oh, and I will be taking requests, so go ahead and suggest something. I'll try to take as many as possible.

Thank you. Now, on with the show! Oh, and these drabbles will be unrelated, seeing as the first time, I killed off Hiccup, and now Toothless' dead too (the demon itself was extinguished, remember?), I can't find a way to go on with them dead. So, yeah, bear with me. But don't worry. More angsty ones comin' soon.

Disclaimer: I won't be here eating chicken soup and drinking Cooleys if I had had the profit money of How to Train Your Dragon, so no, it's not mine.

Prompt: Redemption

He hid it as soon as he walked down the narrow wooden stairs of his home and put a crooked smile over it, using that expression to calm his father's worried look.

He let a bit of it show as he walked to his door, back to Stoick, but it was only a slight grimace and a small, very small tightening of the corners of his mouth. As soon as he opened the high doors and stepped out to face a bunch of hungry and in-need-of-cuddling Terrible Terrors, some rookie rider or Astrid herself, it was hidden again. He would wear that crooked smile, his eyes only a little bit cloudy with its persistent poking, and continued on with the day as if he was fine.

He would forget it as soon as he mounted me and we take to the sky. It was the best time of the day, those flights, but only partly because of the feel of the air, of when we were one. It was because I could see that he had managed to outrun its shadow for awhile, if just for awhile.

At the end of the day, when we returned to his home, as he faced the door, my rider would once again allow a tiny wince as his prosthetic foot was dragged around. But as soon as he stepped inside, it was once again controlled in tight harnesses. He would join his father for dinner, the two laughing and talking about what they did for the days. Their awkwardness was showing a little less. I would sit by the fire and munch on my fish, waited for them to finish, then follow my human upstairs.

He would stumble to his desk, lowered himself gratefully into his chair and start sketching something on a piece of "parchment", as humans called it, while I sat near his bed and watched him. He would look at me now and then with a pained smile, and I got the message – it was breaking through. Nothing beats it. Not even us. And of course, my rider handled it well, he was tough, but he would have to bend sometimes. Soon, by the look of it.

When he grew tired of drawing and scribbling or had a new invention and it was too late to do anything about it, he would stretch and yawned mightily before getting up, limping, its shadow gaining now, making him wince, but he made it to the bed and tumbled down with a sigh of relief, then with a wince, moved his left leg and rested it on his right, rolled up his pant sleeve and started to undo that fake leg of his.

I looked away. I didn't want to see the pink, healing flesh of that wound. It was a mark of failure to me, failure that I can't protect him the way I wanted to – the way I was supposed to. Now he was in its constant grasp and would be for awhile before it grows bored with him and goes away. The removal of my tailfin was less painful, since it was only a few stems of thin bone and skin, but this…this was a whole limb. And it was my fault.

A hand gently touched the patch of skin behind my left ear, and I looked up into his smiling face. "Hey, I'm okay," he said, his voice soft and soothing, but it was evident on his face, taking up more space in his eyes than it had in the entire day. "This is just a pinch. It'll heal soon."

Yes, it would heal. But how long? I whined and leaned my head against his touch. Just how longer until it stops haunting my rider with me being powerless to do anything?

We remained silent for awhile, then my human grinned. He scooted down a bit to the end of the bed and patted the "mattress" with his other hand invitingly. "Well, it's gonna be a bit cold today, so why don't we share the bed? I'm sure Dad wouldn't mind. After all, he wouldn't want me frozen like an ice cube, now would he?"

My ears perked up instantly with the suggestion, and with a thankful sound, I jumped onto the bed with him, circling my rider and raised one wing so that he could lean against my side. I cooed happily. That's my human. Always know where to poke and what to say to make me feel better or give me a chance to redeem myself.

We were quiet for some time, so I thought he'd fallen asleep and was about to extinguish the candle on a block of wood next to his bed when my rider spoke. "You know, if I get to sleep with this warm pillow-and-blanket-in-one-go all the time, I think losing a leg isn't that much of a deal," he said teasingly, green, sleepy eyes looking at me, a smile hidden in them.

I snorted back and nuzzled his face before turning once more to the candle and blew through my nose. The thing went out, and we were drowned in darkness. In about three or four minutes, my rider's breathing evened out, and he was asleep.

The pain would stay with my human for awhile, but it doesn't matter. I am here, and I can soothe it, even if just somewhat.

~the Apprentice