As one could've foreseen, after the two, sleepless nights, after tiring himself out, physically and mentally, and after not even taking care of his own wounds, Toothless fell ill, spending the rest of the next day in bed. The sickness itself wasn't anything worrisome - the only symptoms of it were coughing and headache - but even so, having in mind his beloved woman's massive concern, she didn't let him even move through the entire time of its lasting.
About her, Hiccup wasn't entirely healthy herself, although way better than she was just the night before, not bearing any nausea, nor weakness, being able to occasionally stand up, as to do some little, non-significant, tasks. Hence, as she could, she looked out for the man, mainly staying by him, reading him some books that were left after the last incident, and once he fell asleep, preparing a warm meal for when he woke up.
The next, after that one, day was not much different, neither was the next, and it wasn't until the fourth that they recovered from their every sickness, and decided to focus on the reparation of their home, which awaited them since the very beginning. Thus, Toothless spent the rest of the day on the roof, covering the hole, having a width of half of it, with wooden planks, while Hiccup took care of the inside, throwing away the damaged objects, technically emptying the whole building.
As for the rest of the week, it was used for retrieval of lost things, by replacing them with new ones - in that case, furniture, weapons, food, and even clothes that Hiccup, without much a problem, sewed, in an unexpectedly short time. When all of this was resolved, it could've seemed that, from then on, everything was going to be alright, but alas, it was just like Toothless once confessed to his friends and - "It turned out that, since that week, everything just went downhill."
In the beginning, the man thought nothing was wrong, and Hiccup's eagerness to help the others came off as harmless, even more, he was confident the woman was just being her ordinary, selfless self, and he supported her in that, unaware of what that would bring later. Alas, he didn't know then that Hiccup, with nothing to fix more, would make up issues, that she would make mountains out of molehills, that she would make everything, just so she could work herself out, even to the death, if not on purpose.
Through the month, Hiccup became somewhat of a ghost, which the group could've glimpsed work occasionally, either in the freshly built forge or the building of her choice, just to improve anything there was in any kind of way. "'s worse with her that's even with me," - every time, at the remainder of these words, being Astrid's response to his, earlier mentioned, Toothless would get anxious, realizing that, for the first time in a longer while, his excessive worry was not groundless.
Basically, Hiccup was overworking herself, becoming some kind of a workaholic; she didn't eat anything, starving herself to the point where she was close to passing out - only then she would consume something at last - not even mentioning the sleep which seemed to not exist in her dictionary, anymore. So, Toothless was concerned, every day observing how she was getting fainter and fainter in his eyes, felt guilty, blaming himself for not watching her out before everything could've taken such a turnout, and, in particular, he just missed her.
The truth was, despite living in the same house, Toothless was able to see Hiccup sporadically, and as for talking, it was even more periodic, only greeting and farewelling, not always receiving her response. One of these days, hearing yet another "I'm fine", after asking if she was for sure, Toothless snapped, losing all the patience he had for her, that prevented him from any abrupt decisions, and marking it as the day, in which her unhealthy behavior ends.
Therefore, he stood in the frame of the hatch leading to the upper level of the house, in one hand holding the wooden bowl, from which steamed a delicious, fishy scent, and glared at the woman seated at the desk in the corner, oblivious to his presence. Of course, it wasn't as if he were trying to hide from her; he had greeted her just a few minutes ago, but since then, she neither responded nor even looked up at him, keeping her eyes fixed on the papers before her.
Ultimately, his patience must have run out, and taking rather a deep breath, he began, "I brought you dinner," lifting the quoted meal when she glanced at him with her eyes.
"Okay," she replied, almost as if she whispered, before returning to stare at her papers, noting something on them in the meanwhile. "Thank ya."
"I guess, you're welcome," he responded, climbing the rest of the stairs, and as he drew nearer her, being by the side of her chair, he shoved the soup just in front of her face. "Here, eat."
"I will," she promised, but instead of doing that like he had a small hope for so, she took the bowl from him and placed it in the corner of the wooden surface, away from her papers, and hence, herself, then continuing, "in a minute. I'm not that hungry."
"In a minute?" he repeated, narrowing his eyes at her, irritated. "These ones you were supposed to eat in a minute just as well."
As he stated that, he pointed with his chin at the other plates filled with cold food, some of them recent, for instance, Hiccup's breakfast, and some of them so outdated, that they were covered by the greenish mold that spread even to the floor. Despite that, the woman didn't even battle an eye, shrugging at his remark, to what Toothless couldn't react indifferently, and feeling how the fury loaded his body, he didn't think straight, anymore.
Before either of them could've comprehended that, the man grabbed the papers from the farther part of the furniture, before, with one swing of his arm, he shed the whole coverage of it, scattering the ground with the parchment paper. At first, Hiccup didn't move an inch, and when the realization of what happened hit her, she sighed, before impacting her palm into the wood she scowled at Toothless, who was not much concerned with that.
"My fuckin' gods! Are ya crazy?!" she shouted at him, while he maintained a hardened expression, pulling the earlier ignored by the woman meal to her. "What's wron' with ya, Toothless!"
"Eat that, and I'm fuckin' watchin' until that's empty," he ordered, although afterward, glimpsing how Hiccup only crossed her arms, still keeping on drilling her eyes into him, he snarled. "Didn't I make myself clear?! Either you'll do this the easy way, or I'll make it the hard way, understood?"
"Asshole," Hiccup murmured in response, to which Toothless just rolled his eyes and stank an eye at her, when she snapped, standing up from her seating, rapidly. "Let me pass."
"Eat the soup."
"I won't eat it!"
"Then you won't pass," he countered, shrugging and boring his eyes into her, when she frowned, grounding her jaw. "You're makin' the whole situation way harder than it should be."
"Okay, that's fuckin' enough," she droned, getting through him, more precisely under his elbow, although not very far, because at once, she sensed how he gripped her upper arm and dragged her back, with the strength that threw her on the chair, almost making her fall backward with it. "For fuckin' sake, Toothless!"
"I'm givin' you five seconds to eat that," he started, leaning over her, resisting his hand on the desk's corner, while Hiccup just avoided his sight, turning her head to the side, "otherwise, I swear, I'll fuckin' force-feed you."
"How many times do I have to repeat that, I am not hungry!" she groaned, hugging herself as his stare didn't leave her even for a mere moment. "Besides, I have to work. I don't have time for yer oddly enough requests."
"Five."
"Godsdamnit!" Hiccup bellowed, and not wasting any second more, she snatched the bowl from the desk, and applying its rim to her lips, drank from it to the bottom, in rather deep sips. "Happy?" she inquired, slamming the empty, clay vessel back on its spot.
"Not as much as you may think," he mumbled, straightening, and wiping his forehead as he went to pick up the paper that he earlier scattered. "However, yes, I am happy," he added when he passed Hiccup the collected documents.
Afterward, he moved somewhere farther away, and Hiccup didn't mind much, as long as she could return to her previous work, which was sorting the information that she managed to gather from the Dragon Eye. Through making so, as some moment passed, her eyes peeked somewhere over the desk, although stayed there, glimpsing the same, cracked bowl, as well as the hanging, silver shield on the wall, the reflection of which she stared at.
There, she noticed Toothless, surprisingly still present in the room, sitting at the side of the bed, wiping his face with his hands, with his elbows leaning at his knees, while one of them shook, anxiously. It was just then, glancing from the bowl to him, even at her papers, that she understood, that she recognized how she behaved, how similarly to previously she behaved, although this time having no excuses such as sickness.
The shame crossed her body, but not as if it just appeared, but only increased in volume, having in mind that Hiccup, since that whole month, still couldn't get rid of it, and only fought it, as shown, ineffectively. She was a wreck, one fucking wreck, incapable of making anything she took on useful, unable to spare the worry for the people she cared the most about, unfit to do anything because wherever she would stay still or work herself out, she would just cause concerns.
Hiccup wasn't even aware when her legs as well as arms pushed her away from the desk, her body itself moved to the bed, and sat down just next to the man, while her hands gripped the soft material of their bedding near her thighs. Not having to even gaze at him to sense how he shifted away from her, the offense fuming in him, she shrank in herself and inhaled, before beginning as quietly as her throat let her.
"Toothless, ye're-, ye're the most patient man I'll probably ever meet; the most patient about me especially, because somewhat, ye're able to withstand me, my ideas, my nonsense," she mumbled slowly, with all her strength squeezing her knees together. "I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry that for the whole month, even longer, even in the Berk, I was just one, huge problem. I'm sorry for bein' such a burden," she apologized, wiping off some tears that shimmered in her eyes. "I thought that if I worked if I strived stron' enough-, but it seems that I just made things worse."
Thereafter, as she confessed that, took place a temporary silence, before Toothless encircled his arm around her shaking back, and whispered into her ear, "Come here, sunshine," to which Hiccup didn't object, allowing him to lead herself to his lap as he embraced her firmly, leaning his head against hers. "You are not a burden."
"I am, and I'm sorry for that," she disagreed, hiding her face in the crook of his neck, as his hold only tightened. "Don't worry about me. I'm fine."
"No, you are not fine, nor you were fine, through the entire month," he remarked, plastering his lips to the spot under Hiccup's ear. "Why'd you never tell me that? I assume that you'd thought that since living on Berk since you're mentioning it."
"Because it's nothin' to be proud of," she noted, curling herself. "Because that would make me even more of a burden."
"Bullshit," he rasped, although, noticing that nohow helped her, he leaned his head away, before attempting to grasp Hiccup's chin. "Sunshine, look at me, please," he asked, and once getting hold of her face, he forced her to do that, himself. "I love you, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, and nothing will ever change that. You'll always be my priority, and so will your feelings," he declared, pressing his forehead to hers, although not taking away his eyes from her. "Talk to me, if you need to, say me, whenever something's wrong. That's why I am here."
"If so, then why I am here?" she questioned, uncertain. "What I ever did for ya, anyway?"
"You're joking, right?" he snorted, but then, glimpsing the seriousness overtaking her face, he began, "Hiccup, you're doing so much, for so many! How can you not see that, sweetheart? You, from every human I ever met in the twenty years of living, are the most selfless and gold-hearted. You help everyone in whatever way, no matter if it's not your obligation, nor even a requirement. Not just once did you show that you could sacrifice yourself for someone who wouldn't do the same for you," he proceeded, while Hiccup's smile appeared and only brightened more. "What you ever did for me? Your smile itself is the reason why my life became the way it is, the better way it is! That is true, that since meeting you, my life has had its ups and downs, but after getting to know you, and getting to love you, there wouldn't be any better future for me than this, current one."
"I guess, ya might be right," she admitted, when Toothless shook his head, before placing his lips to her cheek, kissing it not just once. "Thank ya, love. That means a lot to me."
"Whatever makes you quit that fucking overwork," he stated, and then straightened, sensing how her body tensed at that statement, "because you'll quit that, right?"
"I mean, to some extent, for sure-, but not entirely," she admitted and Toothless could only groan, tilting his head backward. "There are matters that should be taken care of after, ya know, the occurrence, so it wouldn't happen again."
"For sake, why you're so after some Dagur and his fucked-up, damned friend?" Toothless questioned, lifting his brow as he answered for himself, "Is it because of what the rest of the group had said? Since when we're bothering with their opinion?"
"Since when, what they say, is truth," Hiccup replied, lowering her eyes. "If I told 'em about the Dragon Eye, we would be prepared for their comin'. Yer pain, yer exhaustion, nothin' of that would take a place."
"You can't be certain of that," Toothless spotted, to which Hiccup glanced at him, questioningly. "Look, from experience I know that planning, being cautious the entire life, won't work, because what kind of life is that? I don't want to survive anymore, I want to live, and I want to live with you, always by my side. Of course, in some cases, we should be prudent, but we can't predict everything; we couldn't predict their attack, and neither we will in the future, so now, we can only wait."
"I suppose ye're right," she agreed, leaning herself more on him, while he grinned, hugging her tighter. "If so, then what we should do, now?"
"Whatever we would like to," he stated, resisting his chin on the top of her head, and glimpsing the sight behind the window above, suggested, "Soon enough, there'll be a sunset, and once, I promised you the flight under it. Maybe, we could do that?" to which Hiccup reacted by smiling, before kissing the bottom of his chin, tilting her head backward, and cheering him up.
Toothless getting his accent after spending an entire month with the Vikings? Yes, please
