Hey y'all! I don't know about you (but I'm fairly sure almost ever HTTYD fan feels this way) but I love what writers can do with the friendship that is between Hiccup and Toothless. I've always wanted to write one of these and today, I have. Let's just say the words kinda flowed out of me so trust me when I say that this did not turn out as how I envisioned it. Is it for the better? We'll see. Oh...probably should add this (explanation of why it's rated what it's rated):
Warning: blood, semi-detailed description of injury, and weapons. (Can you see why I'm trying to be safer rather than sorry? It isn't much more than what they showed in RTTE but again, I'm probably the most paranoid person you'll ever meet, lol).
Hiccup yelped when he tried to move his leg, taking a sharp, hissing breath as he tried to return it to its original position. He was hurt, more than he was letting on to the dragon who was searching the perimeter of the clearing they were in. The red-furred boy who commanded a flock much bigger than he should was hunting them, and many of the flock he commanded were helping him. They had to find shelter — that was the smartest thing to do — but Hiccup was in pain.
His Brother was hurt and in danger and Toothless wasn't sure what to do.
Well, that was a lie, he did know what to do, or at least some of it. He couldn't panic because that would make it hard for him to focus, it would blind him to what could be done by telling him that it was hopeless. Or it could make him lash out wildly and impulsively without really considering what might happen. He could risk Hiccup getting hurt even more.
That wasn't about to happen.
He had to stay calm and make sure that they were safe for the time being, safe enough for him to come up with what to do next.
Like, find a way to get Hiccup from here to a nearby cave or some other natural shelter without hurting him.
Oh, and stop the bleeding. The tang of the metallic scent was sure to draw the red-furred boy and his flock here.
So, Toothless made sure those humans were nowhere close to the clearing before attending to his Rider, as swiftly as he could, since Hiccup's injury needed to be tended to.
"I-I'm f-fine," Hiccup grunted almost immediately when Toothless approached him. "J-just need to w-walk it off." He tried putting his foot down to stand up to show Toothless but yelped in pain when he put weight on it. Blood from the gash, which Toothless knew wasn't the main reason why his Rider couldn't put weight on his one intact leg, dripped down over what little of the not-fur thing that Hiccup covered his leg with that remained and over the pale skin of his human.
Hiccup stared like it was the first time he noticed the injury, even though an arrow from the red-furred boy's flock didn't hit him directly, but still managed to draw this much blood. Maybe that was a bad sign, that whatever happened to his ankle was worse than the wound actively bleeding, but Toothless couldn't remember that much blood either.
"Bandages," Hiccup muttered, gesturing at the saddlebag hanging off of Toothless's side. Toothless moved closer so Hiccup only had to just barely lean over to reach in and pull out the small bundle of white not-fur. "Can you get me some sticks? Sturdy ones," Hiccup asked Toothless as he reached down to wrap the bandages around his leg.
Toothless made a half-affirmatory, half-relieved sound at his Rider as he went to find the requested sticks. Hiccup seemed to snap out of whatever it was that he had been under after they first crash-landed, which was a good thing since Toothless couldn't think of everything himself. As soon as Toothless found what he thought would help, he brought them to his Rider.
Hiccup took one of the sticks and held it in place as he used the bandages to secure them, then repeated the same with the other stick. When it was finished, Hiccup slowly stood up, tentatively putting weight on his leg. His lips curled upward, just barely, but enough to be noticed. What was that expression called again? Right, "smile." His Rider gave a small smile, which Toothless took to mean that he didn't feel any pain. Toothless warbled happily, nudging Hiccup's arm as he began to make his way to a cave he knew to be close by.
However, when Hiccup stepped forward, the sticks must not have worked the way he wanted them, too because he fell to the ground with an oof, clutching at his ankle. His face contorted with pain, he didn't seem to notice Toothless or the figure lurking in the shadows of the trees. Toothless wouldn't have noticed the figure's presence either since he was too preoccupied with his hurt Rider if it hadn't been for his brain to be wired for survival and thus, his ears managed to pick up the sounds made by the figure as it slowly approached them. He could tell that they were being ever so careful not to get caught, but not careful enough. His hearing could pick up their movements even if he was distracted, and now that they had his attention, he decided that they had gotten close enough.
He spun around just as one of those spines humans used to shoot dragons such as himself from the sky was fired — fired at his incapacitated, already wounded Rider. Instinct overtook voluntary movement, though he wouldn't have resisted if it didn't, and he swiped at the spine with his tail to stop it from reaching Hiccup. It embedded itself in him and before he knew it, a roar of pain, followed by a good plasma blast in the direction of the figure escaped his throat. Luckily, the spine hit nothing but muscle, so that it wouldn't cause too much damage, but it still hurt. Bad.
He would have to push through the pain to get Hiccup to safety. They just had to make it until Hiccup's father managed to find them. He knew that the man would know the island they were on, Hiccup's flock would just need to search this island and drive off the red-furred boy's flock.
And in order to survive until then, they still needed to get to that cave to hide out. Hopefully, their hunters wouldn't know of it, but if they did, then Toothless would fight to keep Hiccup safe.
He wouldn't let his Brother down, not Hiccup, not that day, not ever.
Hiccup groaned when he shifted, his hands shooting down once more to the injured leg. "I better not lose this one, too," he muttered.
He sounded tired, in Toothless's opinion. Hiccup needed rest, especially with his wounds, but of course, the hatchling refused to, though he did stay in the spot Toothless had carefully placed him in. Shortly after Toothless was hit with the spine, Hiccup attempted to stand up and ended up falling back to the ground, hitting his head and losing consciousness. Toothless had to slide Hiccup on his back (which was hard considering his limbs didn't work like a human's and thus he had to maneuver the hatchling into a position that kept him from falling off), and get to the cave. Thankfully, none of their hunters seemed to pick up on their trail so the cave was safe — for now.
Which allowed Toothless more time to worry for his Rider. Hiccup had an actively bleeding wound, another that prevented him from walking (and that wasn't talking about the missing leg, that had long been healed and had a fake leg attached to it), and he had hit his head. What if it was too much for him to take? And what was taking Hiccup's flock so long to find them? Was it because of the efforts of the red-furred boy?
Toothless prodded Hiccup, gently because he didn't want to hurt the hatchling further and made a sound he didn't have a word yet for but knew that it had the same tone Hiccup used when he was asking a question.
Hiccup turned his head to look the Night Fury in the eye, saying, "I'm f-fine, Toothless. No need to worry. My dad will be here any minute." Then he leaned back against Toothless's side, laying his head on the space where Toothless's wing met the rest of his body. "Any minute," he repeated, his assurance sounding a little less confidant that time.
Still, Toothless hummed, trying to calm Hiccup down a little more.
Any minute…any minute the hunters would be driven off and they would be taken home. Any minute until then.
Toothless would watch over Hiccup until then, his tail (Hiccup had wrapped a bandage on it as he had with his leg, scolding Toothless for being reckless at the same time, though Toothless hated how Hiccup winced when he moved to get closer) curled around the hatchling's frame.
They didn't come until that night.
Not the flock, they were still nowhere in sight, though Toothless and Hiccup were still being hunted. He could tell that by the voices of the hunters as they shouted at each other on other parts of the island. It would be only a matter of time before they were found. Hopefully, by morning Hiccup would be able to muster enough strength to get on Toothless so they could move elsewhere; he'd gotten worse and needed help before infection set in. If Hiccup's flock weren't going to find them, then they would find Hiccup's father and whichever human decided to come to look for Hiccup with him themselves.
No, it wasn't the humans who lived in the same cluster of buildings with Hiccup that came that night. It was a silent monster that twisted Hiccup's face into one of fear and pain, that made the hatchling shiver beneath the shielding wings of Toothless, and had him whimpering every once in a while. Toothless had once heard Hiccup call them nightmares, but Toothless thought they were more like bad, bad Night Furies. Like the ones that had chased Toothless and his mother out of their home when he was just a hatchling, but now wasn't the time to remember those horrible times, when the man with the gray fur hunted his kind; Toothless's only relief was that the Night Furies who hated him weren't able to hunt him anymore.
Toothless mentally growled at himself for just a second for thinking about those times when his Rider needed him. So, now that he was finally focused, he opened his wings and shifted so his back was to the entrance of the cave so that it shielded Hiccup. Then, he nestled his head into the fur that topped Hiccup's and brought Hiccup's body to his. Hiccup wrapped his arm around one of Toothless's front legs, his grip tight but not uncomfortable. It seemed the rest of his body relaxed.
Hiccup only shuddered every once in a while, the span in between each occurrence feeling like hours but still too soon. They stayed that way, like two brother kits huddling together for warmth in the dead of winter, until both drifted off into deep, dreamless sleep.
There was a human approaching their cave. Their scent was familiar.
A good familiar, as that odd hatchling-Rider that Hiccup spent a lot of time with would say, the loud stocky one who challenged Hiccup's position as Alpha regularly but really never did anything about it.
While Toothless tried to register the scent's owner, he prodded Hiccup to wake him up. It would be best if both were alert in case this turned out to be a trap.
But it wasn't, because a few seconds after Hiccup mumbled, "Whatizzit?" the figure walked into the mouth of the cave and revealed themselves.
It was Hiccup's father.
"Son!" he shouted as he quickly crossed the distance between the mouth of the cave and where Hiccup and Toothless lay. Toothless uncurled himself to allow Hiccup to sit up.
"Dad!" he cried, pushing himself to his feet off of Toothless's side and using Toothless to stay steady, his leg lifted off the ground.
"Are you hurt?" the man asked, looking over his hatchling, concern furrowing his brow.
"A little," Hiccup admitted.
Toothless growled at that, not standing for lies about his Rider's condition.
"I'll be fine," Hiccup corrected, "After Gothi takes a look at me." Then he glanced down at Toothless and asked, "That make you happy?"
Toothless warbled happily, nestling his snout in Hiccup's hand before drawing away.
"Thank goodness we found you before anything else happened," Hiccup's father breathed, hugging his son, "Thank Thor that it wasn't too late."
"Thank Toothless, Dad," Hiccup replied, pointing at his dragon. "He kept me safe. Well…safer."
"Yes, of course," the man laughed, before turning serious and saying, "Thank you for keeping my son alive. Again."
Toothless tried to tell them that he was just glad he didn't fail his Brother, that he was glad Hiccup's father was there, and that they'd be able to come home. But it didn't matter that they could understand, they always did when he needed them to understand the most.
Besides, Hiccup was safe.
Well, I hope you enjoyed it! Like I said, this didn't turn out as expected, but I hope you still enjoyed it! I certainly had fun writing it (is that...sadistic? I sure hope not!)
Anyway, please leave a review! I'd love to hear what I did well and what I could do to improve for another hurt/comfort fic. Thanks for taking the time and have an absolutely wonderful day!