Whump Server Prompt #5: Broken Bone(s)

Set post-THW (and yet diverges from THW). Some THW spoilers. Light (Fury) was never quite sure what to think of Hiccup, the Night Fury's rider. She got used to his antics, warmed up to his compassionate personality, found herself bewildered with the respect and awe he showed towards dragons, but after a year, there are still plenty of surprises she still has left to discover.

Had some difficulty ending this one.

Constructive criticism is highly appreciated!

Enjoy!

Broken For Her

The Light Fury sat by the fire Toothless made. Gathering and neatly piling a bunch of branches with skill that told of the many years the Night Fury has spend with the Vikings of Berk, he created something that the humans called a "campfire". He lit it up with a quick and small plasma blast to finish it off.

The light of the fire washed over all three of them. Her, Toothless, and the Night Fury's Rider, Hiccup.

"Thanks, Bud. That's a lot better." Hiccup told Toothless, who crooned and pressed their foreheads and then their cheeks together. A very draconic gesture of affection, Light noticed. The two of them did that a lot.

Hiccup was sitting at her side, a wing of hers shielding him from the freezing winds that the trees around them failed to keep out. While Toothless was out on his quest to make his human a fire, she was keeping him warm.

The campfire was lit now, Hiccup would no longer need to rely on a dragon's body heat to keep him safe from the cold. A good thing, but Light found herself unable to move away from him. Or rather, she was unwilling to.

They weren't in New Berk, they weren't even on their island. Instead, they were far away from home, camping out in the middle of a forest during a chilly Winter night after escaping from some lonesome Dragon Hunters. They had been desperately trying to revive the business empire that was once Viggo Grimborn's years ago, they were old foes.

It was hard to do so with the Dragon Riders' constant meddling. They thought it would help to catch the Chief of the Hooligans, the Dragon Rider, off guard, drag him back to their base and force him to cough up New Berk's location as well as the whereabouts of any and all dragon rescues.

Big mistake, of course. Not only was there no way Hiccup would simply tell them what they wanted to know, but they'd failed to properly restrain Toothless. The Night Fury had broken free before they'd brought him back to the camp and nearly gone on a rampage to break his mate and other significant other out.

Some miles away, the camp was still burning to the ground. There was a massive smoke plume visible in the moonlight. The three of them were waiting for the others to come bring them back home.

They'd been out together for Hiccup's day off, Toothless wasn't wearing his automatic tailfin and Hiccup could not steer their artificial fin the way he was now.

Light was staring at him. As Toothless settled near them, at Hiccup's other side, she was still staring.

Hiccup's face was bloody and bruised. An eye of his was swollen, his nose only just stopped bleeding and his lip was split. Though it looked painful, none of it could compare to the mess that were his hands.

Before the Night Fury had escaped, Light Fury had cloaked herself by heating her scales from the inside-out. That made it seem like she was no longer in her cage at all. The Hunters had blamed her mate's Rider for her mysterious disappearance, believing he'd somehow broken her out while they weren't looking. They clearly knew nothing of her species.

Light watched as they attempted to tear the answers out of him.

Hiccup could've simply told them the truth. That she was still in there, that her kind could cloak themselves like Changewings, but he hadn't. It was like he knew it made her feel safer and thus refused to tell them.

They'd beaten him. She could see the state of his face, but she'd heard ribs crack too.

As for his hands, they'd given him a choice.

"Give them the truth or have every bone in his hands broken."

For her sense of safety, he'd chosen the latter.

They were bloody and they were bruised. Placing first his right hand and then his left on a table, the Hunters had used a large hammer and it shattered bones and torn skin. Some of his fingers didn't quite bend the right way anymore either. He couldn't move any of them.

The human elderly healer, the one they named Gothi, she would have to take good care of them after the three of them returned home.

As a show of sympathy, Light gave Hiccup a soft nudge on his nearest forearm. His armbraces were absent. He was quieter than she was used to of him and she knew it was from the pain he must be feeling. She'd listened to him screaming with every hit on his hands. And while she couldn't look away, staring made her feel as if her own paws were hurting.

In the past year, the Light Fury warmed up to Toothless' Rider. She'd gotten used to his antics and stubbornness, to his recklessness. At the latter, she often showed her dismay. How Toothless let himself be wrapped up in their shenanigans time and again was beyond her. She never understood.

But Hiccup was a compassionate human with a respect and awe for dragons she'd never seen in his kind before. And after watching him take so much abuse and so much pain just so she would feel a little bit better until her mate would inevitably free the two of them, she finally saw what Toothless has been seeing for so many years. She finally saw Hiccup for who he truly was.

Unique, beautiful in his own way. She knew now what drove the dragons of Berk to hold him in such high regard, what drove them to love him. Hiccup was a human alpha, but his position amongst the dragons was second only to that of Toothless, the King of them all.

Light wondered if Hiccup even knew.

"I'm okay, Bud. I'm okay. Those Hunters did a number on me, but it was ten times more favourable than anything Viggo and Krogan have put us through." Hiccup attempted to ease his partner. Toothless was grumbling and fussing over his Rider's injuries, telling him to lie down and try to get some rest before the rescue party showed up. It wouldn't take them much longer now.

He was staring at Hiccup's hands. All three of them were.

They weren't words Hiccup could hear, but before he left on his little excursion, Toothless had told Light his Viking might be lucky if he could still properly use them after this. A notion that greatly sorrowed him, he loved the human Chief's hands and all they could do. Gothi could return some functionality to them, but extra care and loving treatment was necessary if they wanted Hiccup to invent, forge or draw ever again.

Light liked Hiccup's drawing. She never showed him how much she appreciated his skills. He taught Toothless everything he knew. It was interesting to watch him help out in the forge too.

She watched him help a drake with two bad hindlegs walk again.

His hands were important.

"Bud, I'm fine." Hiccup insisted when Toothless nudged his shoulder.

Deciding to help out, Light carefully pushed her snout into his collarbone with a croon. Hiccup gazed back at her in surprise and she crooned again. She gestured to the space between her and Toothless. He was already nestled in the middle, might as well lie down.

"Oh, uh, okay-okay." Too surprised to put up much of a fight, Hiccup listened. Both dragons needed to help him settle. It hurt for him to move. His ribs ached and it was hard to breathe freely without pain. He moaned once he was snug between them, eyes squeezed closed and face pulled into a grimace. His hands were cradled to his chest.

The upside to this, Hiccup admitted, was that this was the closest he'd ever been to the Light Fury so far. Cautious as she was, he counted himself lucky whenever she was willing to be in his near vicinity. To actually be nestled warmly in between her and Toothless, even while discomfortable with his injuries, to be cared for and protected by both of them, he would gladly savour this until the Dragon Riders would inevitably come for them.

After sighing deeply and successfully keeping his composure, Hiccup then looked up to both Furies as they gazed back down at him. He could feel Toothless' warm breath brushing through his hair, a familiar feeling.

Light was grateful for his sacrifice, Hiccup could tell by the look she wore and by the way she rumbled at him. He smiled up at her. If his hands weren't as beat up as they were, he would've tried to request the opportunity to scratch her chin like he would with Toothless.

"I'd do it again." Hiccup shrugged, his smile only growing despite the pain he was in. Light could see that there was an undeniable honesty in his gaze.

He really would do it again.

His hands were too hurt for the time being, so Light purred and affectionately rubbed her snout against his temple instead. A chuckle left Hiccup, quickly cut off when it proved to be too torturous for his aching ribs. It earned him a panicked yelp from Light, fussing over his well-being, a well-meaning nudge from her nose to his was met with a pained moan on Hiccup's part, who quickly turned his head.

"Toothless, a little help, please? She's not aware how meek and fragile we, humans, are."

Toothless watched them, wrapping his tail around Light and in a way Hiccup as well. What mattered to him was that they were both safe and that the Dragon Riders were coming, but watching his Rider and mate finally bond like this, it was a sight he'd been dying to see all year.

The Light Fury finally understood why Toothless loved Hiccup as much as he did, why he would go to the ends of the Midgard for him now and forever.

Because he knew, Hiccup would do the same for either one of them.