A Father's Worry: After the episode "Midnight Scrum", Stoick is suddenly plagued by concern that Hiccup has more injuries than he's led onto. And he just might be right. Requested by Hiccstridlover13

Hello, my little munchkins! I'm back from hiatus! Oh, and yess, I'm so sorry for not updating yesterday… I had a really bad headache (due to sleep deprivation, heh), and inspiration for this was kind of… lost... Anyway, I appreciate you all waiting for me. :)

And thank you so much Hiccstridlover13 for requesting this! I adore reading about father/son bonding so much, and even more so writing it! Funnily enough, I actually re-wrote this twice because I didn't like how it turned out first… but, I think this one is written better than the first one was.

Enjoy!

Hiccup stumbled, nearly falling face flat in the dark of night on his doorstep's stairs. Toothless caught him gently before he could fall, but the boy still winced. "Ow…"

"Hiccup?" Stoick asked from behind him, confused. "Son, are you all right?"

"Yeah…" Hiccup clutched his stomach painfully as he entered his old house, his father quickly trailing behind him. Hiccup, all of the sudden thoughtful about his surroundings, realized hadn't been back in his home for months, it seemed. Possibly even a year had passed since he'd slept in his old bed. He cleared his throat, trying to shrug off his father's worry. "My stomach is still just a little sore from where Ryker punched me… but I'm fine now."

As he turned back to the chief, who was now closing the door, he noticed a furious expression gradually spreading across his father's countenance. "Apparently, those namby pamby Dragon Hunters still need to be put in their place," Stoick growled, slamming the door shut.

Hiccup grimaced. "Dad, I'm okay. There's nothing to worry about."

Stoick's brow furrowed in concern again, and he slowly walked further inside. "Yes, yes, I know…it's just…" He hesitated, thinking about all the ways rescuing Hiccup from the bounty hunters could have ended earlier that day. His son could have been killed...

"Just what?" Hiccup crossed his arms, looking up at his dad with confusion.

Stoick gave a small smile. "I'm just glad you're back now, son."

"Yeah, me too."

The chief clasped his hands together, biting hard down on his lip. "So." He paused, trying to think of a way to fill in the awkward gap between them. "I assume you're tired from today, lad?"

Hiccup laughed, nodding. "Being kidnapped four different times by bounty hunters does have that effect…"

"Appears so, then," Stoick grunted. "Whelp, we best be off to bed now. It's past dark, and you need a good rest if you want to make it back to the Edge safely tomorrow."

Hiccup smiled back. "Sure." He waved Toothless over to the stairs, and started to limp up to the second floor with Toothless leading the way. "Night, Dad. I'll see you in the morning." Soon, he disappeared at the top of the stairs, and a moment later, his door closed behind him.

Stoick sighed, running a hand down his face as he began to walk towards the stairs himself. "Night, son," he murmured, still seeing that moment when Hiccup clutched his stomach from earlier haunting his mind. He lowered his gaze. If Hiccup was injured, he would have told Stoick. He would have.

He thought for a long moment, doubt clouding his mind.

Right?

Ryker's sword hovered just above Hiccup's pale neck, gleaming with a dangerous thirst for blood. Stoick's eyes narrowed in fury at his son being threatened by this man. No one threatened the Haddocks. No one.

Toothless's chest puffed out as he prepared to fire at Ryker and save Hiccup from the Dragon Hunter's wrath, but then Ryker chuckled. He stared straight into Stoick's eyes, giving a wicked smirk. "You're too late, Stoick," he taunted, getting a better grip on his sword again. "You failed your boy like you always fail him. He'd be much better off without you. That's why I'm going to put him out of his misery..."

And then he drew his sword away from Hiccup…

Only to plunge it down into the boy's stomach, laughing.

"No!" the chief cried, terrified. He wanted to race forward, but his feet were frozen. His thoughts were a blur. He couldn't move in his horror. "Hiccup!"

Ryker sneered, pulling his sword away again. "You could have saved him, but you were too weak. You didn't even have the strength to protect your own son, let alone prevent him from being killed. But I guess that's what you always do, isn't it?" With one last cackle, he threw the bleeding Hiccup to the ground, and sauntered away.

Stoick's eyes were wide with fear as he ran forward to his moaning boy. The feeling in his legs was back, making him able to move, but it was too late. He was too late. "Hiccup! No… please, son… don't leave me… please…" He arrived beside Hiccup, and kneeled down next to him. He gasped. Where Ryker's sword had plunged down in his son's stomach, there was a deep wound carved in, spilling out blood rapidly.

"Dad…" Hiccup coughed from his place on the ground. "Hurts…"

Stoick felt his eyes watering. "Hiccup… no… you have to hold on, son… please. I can't lose you too. Hiccup… Hiccup!"

Hiccup's eyes were closing, but he managed to croak out one more thing before his eyes closed. "You failed me, Dad. I could have lived if it wasn't for you. You failed me…" Then he went limp, his skin slowly draining away any trace of color… of life.

Stoick's face paled. No. This couldn't be happening. Hiccup couldn't be gone… no…

"Hiccup," he whispered, shaking his son. "No, please! Hiccup!"

The boy didn't move.

Stoick panicked. No… no…

"Hicccccccuuuppp!"

"No!" Stoick gasped, sitting up straight in bed. He expected to see Hiccup's limp form lying in front of him, but there was nothing there anymore. Only darkness.

And silence.

He frowned, rubbing his eyes. It had all been a dream, then. But it had seemed so real…

Hiccup.

His sleepy eyes widened, and he slid his legs over the side of the bed in franticness. He had to see if Hiccup was okay. Oh, if something had happened while he was asleep… The chief didn't wait longer than he had to, standing up with new alertness.

He raced out of his bedroom in a blur, into the dark hallway, and pushed open Hiccup's door without even registering how fast he was moving. "Hiccup?" he whispered into the blackness. "Are you awake?"

He heard the creaking of Hiccup's bed as the boy rolled over in his sleep. Hiccup let out a groan. "What?"

Stoick paced over to the side of the bed, worried. He knew that the dream hadn't been real, but with Hiccup's stomach condition earlier, he still needed to see if his son was truly unharmed. "Does your stomach still bother you, son?" he asked hurriedly.

Hiccup sighed. "I'm... I'm fine, Dad."

The chief narrowed his eyes at the hesitance clear in Hiccup's tone, and he crossed his arms. "How bad is it?" He wanted to know. No, he needed to know if something else he hadn't found out about had happened to his son, and he hadn't been informed yet.

"It's not bad. Can I go back to sleep now?"

"Hiccup…"

"Fine… it is a little sore." Hiccup yawned, the tired and exasperated sound filling the room. "But did you have to wake me up in the middle of the night to know about it?"

Stoick grunted, not wanting to recounter his dream from before. "Well, you'll be going back to Dragon's Edge tomorrow," he explained, "and I want to make sure you're checked out for any injuries before you go." He looked over at Toothless in the dark, the Night Fury's body barely visible with the poor lighting. "Give us some light, Toothless," he ordered.

The dragon rumbled, opening up his mouth which glowed with a blast ready to fire. It gave enough light in the room so that Stoick could then see Hiccup sitting up in bed in front of him, the boy clearly not happy with the situation.

"Where does it hurt, lad?" the chief asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Hiccup muttered something inaudible in reply, before lifting up his shirt to reveal his battered stomach. Stoick sucked in a breath at the ugly sight. The bruising looked painful and far too deeply colored, with traces of black, purple, and blue all in the targeted spot. A rib could've even possibly been broken from the look of it.

"Oh, Hiccup…"

"It's okay, Dad," Hiccup rushed, putting his shirt back down. "It'll heal quickly. I've dealt with worse before." He gestured to his prosthetic leg, weakly smirking.

Stoick's tight expression loosened, and his arms fell to his sides. "Hiccup, that still looks serious. Maybe Gothi can check you out in the morning..."

Hiccup groaned, letting his head drop on his pillow. "Dad-"

"Is anything else hurt?" Stoick interrupted, suddenly feeling more protective than usual of his son. When Hiccup didn't answer, leaving an icy silence in the air, the chief narrowed his eyes. "Hiccup, is anything else hurt?"

Hiccup shrugged, nervous. "My right knee does a little," he admitted quietly.

Stoick frowned. "Show me."

"Dad," the boy repeated, "it's fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine!"

"Sure. You could break every bone in your body and you still would say, 'it's fine'."

Hiccup, silently knowing that arguing with his father any more than this would be to waste, complied to the order and took his leg out from below the sheets. He rolled his left pant leg up, leaving it at his thigh, and it revealed yet another nasty bruise staining the pale skin. It was already turning a concerning color of purple, nearly a fist big by now.

The chief stiffened. Why hadn't he noticed this before? If Hiccup was in pain, he should have known. He should have asked earlier. It was only his dream of Hiccup dying that had forced him to ask his son about any injuries he might have had other than a sore stomach. And now that he knew Hiccup had been suffering in silence, too ashamed to say he was hurting, not coming to Stoick for help…

"All right then," Stoick breathed, clapping his hands together. "We'll get you bandaged up now."

Hiccup sat up quickly, shaking his head. "No, you don't need to do that," he protested. "None of this is really necessary-"

Stoick held up a hand, stopping Hiccup in mid-sentence. "But it is necessary for a father to take care of his son, and that's exactly what I'm doing, Hiccup."

Toothless rumbled from the other side of the room in agreement.

Hiccup sighed. "You too, bud?" he moaned.

The Night Fury's head bounced up and down in an alternate rhythm until Stoick cut him off with a laugh. "It's best not to argue with your chief and your dragon, son," he advised. "And a little bandaging will do you more good than harm, eh?"

Though exasperated, Hiccup nodded. "Fine."

Chuckling, Stoick waved his son over. "Come on, lad. Let's head downstairs and get your injuries attended to."

Hiccup, reluctantly, slid his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, legs trembling. "Okay, I'm coming, I'm coming…" He limped over to Stoick, and his father watched in concern.

"Do you need help getting down the stairs?" he offered.

Hiccup's amused expression faded, and he scowled. "No!" Toothless chortled, standing up from his black slab of rock. Hiccup gave him a pointed look. "Don't laugh, Toothless," he groaned. "You're above that."

Smirking, Stoick threw his arm over Hiccup's shoulder, nearly knocking the boy over in the process. "I don't think your dragon agrees with you, son, but I won't stop you from striking off on your own if you wish."

Hiccup nodded gratefully, and began to limp out the door, Stoick following behind him in silence. But before they got very far, Hiccup turned back around. He gave a small, weak smile at his father, cocking his head. "Thanks, Dad," he acknowledged. "You didn't have to do this, but you did."

Stoick grinned back, and ruffled Hiccup's hair, much to the boy's protest. "Anytime, lad," he said cheerfully, nodding. "You're my son. A Haddock. I'd do anything for you."

Hiccup's green eyes twinkled. "Really?"

"Really."

There was a pause. "Dad?"

"Yes, son?" Stoick came over to Hiccup, putting a comforting arm around his shoulder again.

Hiccup looked up at him, and smiled. "Maybe, you know, you could come visit us on the Edge sometime. If you wanted to, that is," he added hastily.

Even though it wasn't the most grand of offers, Stoick's expression was absolutely shining. "I'd like that son," he agreed with large smile.

He nodded.

"I'd like that very much."

Hope you all enjoyed the father/son fluff and Hiccup!whumpiness! :) Oh, and I apologize that it's shorter than the other one shots I've written recently. It's just because (unfortunately) I've been cursed with killer headaches all week, which makes it really hard to write. But at least I managed to get this much done, right? :)

See you all at the next one-shot! Lots of Hiccup!whump in there to look forward to. As always, PM me or leave a review if you have a request, and I'll see what I can do.

Happy reading!

-thepurplewriter333