Whump Server Prompt #3: Burns

Stoick has imagined it before. After losing Valka, after watching the other Chiefs burn in the inferno that Drago caused, Stoick imagine losing Hiccup to that very same fiery fate. Despite the years spent protecting him, Stoick discovers he still wasn't ready for the real deal. NO MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH.

Author's notes: There are four prompts this September. The first I decided to tackle was "Burn(s)"!

Constructive criticism is highly appreciated! Enjoy!

Father's Worst Nightmare

Stoick has imagined it before.

When he lost Valka and watched her be taken into the dark night sky by a Stormcutter while he and their son were left in the burning house that was once their home. When Drago came down with his dragon army and turned the Great Hall in which all the Chiefs of the Archipelago had gathered into a blazing inferno. During every single dragon attack on Berk, he imagined it.

He imagined losing Hiccup to fire, to the flames of dragons.

In his darkest moments, he heard him scream. At night, in his nightmares, he watched him burn. Every morning he woke up, he prepared himself for the possibility that this day could be his last with his son.

For so long, that was all Stoick could think about. Since the boy's birth, he has thanked the Gods for each and every day Hiccup had not yet been taken from him.

But his wild imagination, the years of detachment and fighting, not even watching his son nearly be engulfed by the fires of the dying Red Death has ever managed to prepare Stoick for the day he watched a Singetail burn Hiccup alive.

It happened on the island that was supposed to become the Jorgenson's Storehouse Island.

As Stoick, Spitelout and Snotlout along with their dragons cornered the Singetail that had come to claim the land as theirs, Hiccup and Toothless flew up from underneath to blast the belly of the beast and chase it away. What was supposed to be any dragon's weakness was a surprise ambush in waiting from a Singetail instead.

As the fires from its belly came down upon them, Toothless tried to back up in time. Stoick had seen him try with a cry of panic, but the flames from the Singetail were too quick to avoid.

Many times Stoick had the displeasure of imagining what his only child's screaming would sound like. One time he had the misfortune of hearing them as an urgent amputation was performed on Hiccup to save his life from a rotting leg. The sounds he heard Hiccup make the day a Singetail burned him, Stoick had the bad luck to discover that they didn't even sound human anymore.

They managed to get him back home. It had been a torture to do so, but Hiccup lied in bed now. He was knocked out cold after all the sedative drugs Gothi managed to stuff his system full with. Painkillers and mind-altering herbs that Hiccup would need if they wanted his recovery to be as painless as they could make it. And if they wanted him to retain as little memory of this ordeal as was possible. It's how they got him through the loss of his leg as well.

Stoick sat by his bedside, Hiccup's bed having been moved to the groundfloor. He was just as lost now as he was last time.

Neck, torso, all of his right arm and his left forearm were bandaged up. His face and hair, though the latter was signed in some places, had been spared in the blast as Hiccup's arms had taken the brunt instead.

There was a mix of burns. Some would take weeks to heal, most would take months. Along the way, they would have to watch out for infections. They would have to fight the pain too. It would be Hiccup's reality his every waking moment, all they could do was help him lighten it and help him sleep through it.

For now, though, he was still. He slept.

Toothless did too, but his slumber was a light one. Stoick could see the Night Fury's ears twitching at the smallest of sounds. Minutes ago, Sharpshot scampered across the wooden floor in search of fish and Toothless was already wide awake to see what the source of those tiny claws were.

Stoick was thankful for that. For both Toothless' watchful eye and that his son slept. At least for now.

It was night, he should be sleeping too, but found that it was nigh impossible. He already needed to abandon his son during the day to perform his duties as Chief, when Gobber helped Toothless watch over him instead, Stoick couldn't bear to be apart from Hiccup at night as well.

He blamed Spitelout. For being too stubborn, for not listening, for not knowing about all of the Singetail's abilities. It went so far that the Chief hadn't even allowed Snotlout to come see his cousin yet.

"Dad-dad, I... I didn't know about the- about the- about the underbelly either. I should've- I should've known!" That is what Hiccup told him days ago, when Gothi tried to clean his burns for the first time and Stoick had mentioned thinking that the Jorgensons were responsible for this.

In between his sobs and his cries, even in agony, his son would defend others.

How had it taken him fifteen whole years to see these sides to him?

Pulled out of his thoughts, Stoick took his gaze off Hiccup's hand, held in both of his own, to look at his face. Hiccup let out small strangled noises of pain and wore a grimace, sure signs that his painkillers had worn off. The hurt was waking him up.

Gently laying the young man's hand down, the Chief stood up to go prepare the medicine Hiccup would need in the kitchen.

Waking up meant the chance to visit the outhouse, have something to drink and eat, a change of bandages, but he wouldn't want to stay awake for long. He would want peace and relief soon. Gothi left plenty of herbs. All Stoick had to do was mix them and add water.

By the time he was finished and returned with both it as well as water and a light meal, he could hear Hiccup groaning in the other room. Toothless was already up and purring by his side.

"Bud... Bud." Stoick noticed his son's eyes were open and focussed on Toothless as the Night Fury cooed comforting sounds to his Rider. He wanted to pet him on the nose.

"You're awake." Stoick's voice was soft as he settled back in his seat. His gaze was as gentle as he sounded as he looked down at his son. Teary eyes were wide as they stared back up to him. Hiccup was already trembling all over.

"Are you in any pain?" The Chief wasn't a fool, he knew Hiccup's every nerve must be on fire now, but at least this way he could provide Hiccup an opportunity to voice what he felt. Perhaps, it was a reminder to Hiccup that he didn't need to hide his hurt from his father.

"Yeah. Hurts." Some of Hiccup's tears slipped. Awake for less than five minutes and already the young man wished he'd never woken up.

Setting the medicine down on a small table next to the bed, Stoick knew Hiccup would need to face half an hour to an hour more of this agony before he could have the sweet, sweet release of sleep to put an end to his suffering.

It made Stoick feel even more guilty than he already did.

For failing to protect his son, for not being able to take away the pain, for not knowing what involving Hiccup in his quest to find Spitelout would lead to.

Stoick wished he could reverse time. Even when the burns would eventually heal, many of them would leave behind ugly scars that would remain sensitive. Berk's cold certainly wouldn't be kind to them. This could very well be an injury, received in just the blink of an eye, that would trouble Hiccup for years to come.

He had yet to forgive himself for the loss of Hiccup's leg too.

"Dad?" Pulled out of his wandering thoughts once more, Stoick noticed Hiccup reaching for the mug of water.

"Water. Please?" He looked almost desperate for it and his father was reminded of the fact that one of Gothi's fears was that Hiccup's burns were internal as well.

They weren't, another something Stoick thanked the Gods for, but the mere possibility had certainly kept him up at night.

"Here, son." Hiccup's throat was only dry, fortunately. He sat up as he accepted the mug his father offered to him. The act of sitting up was not an easy feat and Stoick needed to help him stay up, but resisting the urge to down the entire drink in one gulp was evidently more difficult for Hiccup.

Hiccup shrunk in on himself as he handed the wooden mug back and whimpered, the first sign of desperation already showing through. He wanted to fall asleep again, but he also knew his bandages and his body's needs needed tending to first.

He didn't look forward to the next hour or two. He didn't look forward to tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or the ones following afterwards.

"What do you think, son? Something to eat? Or do you want your bandages changed first?" It took Stoick every little bit of his willpower to keep his composure.

Hiccup was suffering. He could see it in the way his son shivered, in how he was using every ounce of his own strength to not break out into a crying fit right in front of his Chief because of the hurt tearing his nerves apart, in the way his one somewhat uninjured hand grabbed a fistful of the covers. Stoick knew very little to measure up to what Hiccup was feeling, but it pained the man to see him this way.

He tried to stay strong and yet he was about to break.

When Hiccup's face inevitably contorted into a pained grimace, he lied down and small noises of pain left his vocals. Hiccup's strength failed him as he lost his battle and he began to cry.

Hiccup almost curled up on his side, but that move just brought him even more pain. Everything he did brought nothing more than pain. And there wouldn't be any relief, not for another hour or so.

Stoick could lay a hand on Hiccup's one mostly unscathed shoulder and let him know he was here, but there was little else he could do to help him. There wasn't anything else Toothless could do besides giving him reassuring rumbles and his nearest thigh a nudge either. The Night Fury was too scared to even settle on the bed like he usually would, afraid that his dry scales would accidentally brush up against his Rider's burnt skin.

All Stoick could really do was sigh deeply and cast his gaze downward in sorrow. Hiccup's mug was still in his hand as he sat there and listened to his son cry, knowing those tears and his pitiful sobbing wouldn't stop until Gothi's mixture would knock him out again.

They all needed to get through these coming months. Hiccup would need to heal, would need to take care of himself and live with the kind of pain able to tear one's sanity apart. Stoick would need to live with his guilt, with the knowledge that he couldn't save his son's mother, his leg and now most of his upper body.

These would be trying times and all the while Hiccup still worried about the Dragon Hunters, but they would need to get through them.

Someway, somehow, they would need to live to see the day they could be okay again.