Title: Back to the Drawing Board

Summary: Hiccup takes a tumble off Toothless - a bad tumble, at that. With Hiccup suffering from a fractured backbone, Astrid feels helpless. Set after "Defenders of Berk" and before "Race to the Edge."

Characters: Hiccup, Astrid

Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Friendship

Rating: K+

Requested by: Capnhttyd

"HA HA HA!" Hiccup cheered, throwing his hands into the air as he and Astrid raced through the clouds. "You can't catch me, Astrid!"

"Oh, is that a challenge, Dragon Boy!?" Astrid called back. She leaned low over Stormfly's back, pressing the Nadder to go faster in an attempt to catch up with Hiccup and Toothless as they rocketed through the clouds as if their lives depended on it.

"Challenge?" Hiccup called over his shoulder innocently, although the smug sarcasm was clear in his tone. "What challenge? I have no idea what you're talking about!" With one final smirk, he refocused his attention on the sky in front of him, and pressed Toothless on.

Astrid smirked right back. "Come on, Stormfly," she said. "Let's get them!" Stormfly squealed in excitement and shot forward like an arrow, pursuing Hiccup and Toothless closely, without a care in the world.

When suddenly, a flock of Terrible Terrors flew out of what seemed like nowhere, shooting upwards into the sky, flocking around Hiccup and Toothless, growling and snarling. "Whoa!" Hiccup exclaimed in surprise, attempting to turn Toothless out of the way of the dragons.

Astrid yelped as well, not expecting the appearance of the Terrible Terror flock. She looked below, expecting to see the twins rushing out of the forest, cackling as they watched the flock of dragons flee.

It would be just like them to scare a pack of innocent Terrible Terrors.

However, there was no sign of Ruffnut, or Tuffnut, and she sighed in relief. At least those two idiots wouldn't get in trouble when they got back to the village.

But when Astrid looked forward again, what she saw made her relief vanish as though it had never even existed. There was a large rip in Toothless' prosthetic tailfin from where a Terrible Terror's claw had slashed it, and before Astrid could even shout a warning, Hiccup and Toothless were plummeting towards the forest below.

"HICCUP!" Astrid screamed. Stormfly screeched along with her and turned, darting towards the falling dragon and his rider. Hiccup screamed the entire way down. Astrid reached her hand out, desperate to catch Hiccup - Toothless would be fine. The dragon had scales like chain mail and bones like iron.

Hiccup did not.

But she knew that from the distance, she and Stormfly would never reach Hiccup or Toothless before they hit, and a moment later, her thoughts were confirmed. Toothless slammed into the treetops, hit the forest floor, and vanished from sight, covered by the shade of the trees of Raven Point.

That wasn't the terrifying part.

The terrifying part was how Hiccup's screaming cut off so abruptly.

"Hiccup!" Astrid shouted again, desperate for a reply. This was her fault; she was the one who suggested they raced a quick lap around Berk before the sun set. If Hiccup was hurt, she'd be the only one to blame.

In mad panic, she steered Stormfly downwards and leapt off the dragon's back as soon as the ground was close enough. Astrid stumbled on her first few steps but quickly regained her footing, her panic driving on her search.

"Hiccup!" she screamed. "Toothless!" If she could find one, she could find the other, she reckoned. She listened closely, and beside her, Stormfly did the same.

Then, she heard a faint moan, followed by the cooing and growling of a dragon she knew all too well. She took off running towards the direction from whence the sound came and skidded to a stop as soon as she stared in horror at the sight before her.

"HICCUP!" she shouted, and took off towards him once again. He was lying flat on his back, Toothless standing over him, nudging the side of his head in panic. Every time Toothless touched him, Hiccup let out another moan of pain.

Astrid collapsed by his side, and Toothless took a step back to give her more room. She knew about human injuries; Toothless did not. She knew how to help Hiccup; Toothless did not. So, reluctantly, Toothless sat back and watched with wary eyes as Astrid's hands hovered over Hiccup uncertainly.

She didn't want to touch him. By his position, it didn't look like Toothless had been able to break Hiccup's fall. Well, maybe a little bit, because Hiccup was still conscious and there were no open wounds or bones poking out of his skin (she shuddered at the thought), but the dragon certainly didn't break Hiccup's fall entirely.

"Hiccup," she said. "Hiccup, c-can you hear me?" She set her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. "Hiccup?"

Hiccup's eyes fluttered, he moaned, and then, his eyes slid open. He gazed at her in what looked like confusion. It wasn't very hard to see why. He'd just fallen from a large height. It was easy to see why he would wonder how he got where he was now.

"Astrid," he gasped. He shut his eyes again and moaned. "What...what…"

"Shh," Astrid was hardly even listening to him at this point. She began checking him over, starting with his head. However, the instant she touched him, he hissed through his teeth, and she retracted her hands sharply, afraid of hurting him more.

"What?" she asked, desperate. "What happened? What hurts? Your head?" This is my fault, a bitter part of her mind snapped at her. This is all my fault.

Hiccup shook his head and groaned again. "N-not my head," he said. "It's...it's more...my neck...but...it's not...exactly...the worst in my neck."

Astrid was already putting it together. He couldn't move without being in pain. He couldn't shake his head without moaning. He was lying flat on his back. He'd fallen from a reasonably big height.

"Hiccup, I...I think…" She didn't say what she thought, because she didn't want to panic him, but she knew now what the problem was.

He'd either broken his backbone, or fractured it.

She really was panicking now. When Hiccup moaned again, she wanted so desperately to hug him, to hold him, to grab his hand and promise him he would be alright. But if he'd suffered an injury to his back, she knew he couldn't move, at all, really. Or, at least he wasn't supposed to.

"Stormfly, go back to the village and get help," Astrid ordered, and Stormfly was quick to obey, spreading her wings and soaring back towards the village to do as Astrid had commanded. Meanwhile, Astrid turned back to Hiccup, trying to remember everything she had ever learned about injuries and how to treat them.

She assumed Hiccup had a back injury and reacted accordingly, positioning herself behind his head and putting her hands on either side of his head to restrict movement. Any movement was bad movement. She knew the dangers and risks of moving him right now. Permanent paralysis was the biggest one that came to mind.

And she didn't want him to be in any pain, either. He was already hurt enough as it was, convulsing and twitching, moaning every so often. Oh, Thor, Astrid wanted to hug him in comfort or drag him onto Toothless to get him back to safety so badly. But alas. She couldn't move him. At all.

She rested her hand over his for a brief moment, squeezed his fingers gently, and then returned her hand to its position on the side of Hiccup's head, keeping him from moving.

And then, there was nothing else she could do but wait. She waited, shushing Hiccup's frequent moans and telling him that he was alright, and that help was coming. She hoped she wasn't lying about him being alright. She really, honestly hoped she wasn't. She couldn't lie to him, especially in a time such as this when he needed her to be completely honest with him.

She waited.

Please, please, please, come back soon, Stormfly.

The sun was beginning to set, dipping over the horizon, and as it left, the cold arrived. Astrid wished she had a blanket, or something she could use to at least keep Hiccup warm with.

Toothless draped his wing over Hiccup although his scales made no contact with Hiccup's skin. Astrid assumed the dragon knew as well as she did that touching Hiccup or causing him to move was dangerous. Maybe a back injury wasn't the only problem. Maybe he had some sort of rib injury as well…

"Astrid! Hiccup!"

She heard a shout of her name and looked in the direction from whence it came. Stoick raced towards them, and Stormfly dropped in from the sky.

Astrid could have cried with relief.

"Stoick!" she shouted back. "Hurry! He's hurt!"

…

Astrid paced back and forth outside Gothi's hut while she awaited Gothi to finish her examination on Hiccup. She wrung her hands together, tugged at the loose strands of her braid (which was now so messy it could hardly be called a braid anymore), and continued pacing.

After Stoick assessed Hiccup's condition at Raven Point, he and Stormfly had raced back to Berk for a stretcher, and after carefully moving Hiccup onto it, supporting his head and neck the whole way, they headed back towards the village and straight to the healer's hut.

Gothi had been in there for a while now with Hiccup, and Astrid had no idea what was going on. Was Hiccup alright? Was he too badly injured?

Just as she was about to barge into the door and demand what was going on, Stoick walked outside, shutting the door behind him before Astrid could look inside. Astrid rushed forward, standing directly in front of Berk's Chief in question.

"Well?" she asked. "How is he?"

Stoick sucked in a deep breath. "He's in surgery," he said in a low, sorrowful tone.

Astrid blinked in shock and confusion and inhaled sharply. "What?" she blurted. "S...surgery for what?" She wasn't acting very freaked out on the outside, but that was only because she didn't know what to think. Hiccup, in surgery? It sounded too awful to be true.

"Paralysis," Stoick said. "Without the surgery, he will be paralyzed for the rest of his life. It's for his own good, Astrid. He will be fine."

Astrid didn't even know what to think anymore. "Can...can I see him?" she asked hesitantly.

Stoick shook his head sadly. "Not right now, Astrid, I'm afraid," he said. "When the surgery is finished, you are permitted to see him, but right now, no."

Astrid nodded. She had expected that, but she didn't feel any more reassured. "Alright," she said. "I'll...I'll wait."

Stoick didn't tell her otherwise, and it was just as well. She wasn't planning on moving any time soon. Not until, at the very least, she saw how Hiccup was doing.

And so she waited. It took another few hours, but at length, Gothi opened the door and stepped outside. One nod to Astrid was all it took before Astrid bolted inside the healer's abode.

And there was Hiccup, lying on multiple blankets on the floor with an extra blanket over his body. He was sleeping what appeared to be soundly, although Astrid knew it was just the sleeping herbs Gothi used to knock him out. That, and his pain probably took his consciousness at least once or twice, no doubt.

She raced to his side and collapsed to her knees. She brushed his bangs out of his face and felt his forehead. She'd expected him to have a fever, and was relieved when his temperature was normal, not too high and not too cold.

She sighed. "I'm sorry, Hiccup," she whispered. She leaned over him and pressed a soft, gentle kiss to his forehead. "Please, wake up soon."

And Hiccup opened his eyes.

Author's Notes:

IT'S ME! I AM BACK! *halfhearted clapping in the background* Not that I've been gone very long now, huh? And I'm here, back with another one-shot that I ended up not being satisfied with…

Well, I hope Capnhttyd, the requester of this fanfiction, liked it. That's all that matters. :) And I hope the rest of you awesome readers liked it, too! :D

Until next update!

-BeyondTheClouds777