Hi, this is the first time I've uploaded to ffn, since I'm usually on AO3... but i thought since httyd has more on ffn that this might be appreciated on here... I will say that I'd recommend Ao3 for a more up to date fic since I'm still figuring stuff out on here lol

They rode back to the edge in silence. The heavy wing beats of their dragons cut through the silence like jagged blades.

Snotlout held on tightly to Hookfang's horns with one hand, the other cradling something small and warm. He held it to his stomach, feeling the warmth of the small creature through his clothes. It was burning his hand, he would probably get blisters, but he couldn't help but feel like he deserved it after today.

The creature let out a small rasp. When Snotlout looked down at it, it was staring up at him. It was still so cute, even after everything that the little hatchling witnessed. Maybe it was just too young to understand.

Snotlout bit his lip and forced back a mournful sound. He let go of Hookfang's horn and cradled the dragon in both of his hands.

Snotlout brought the little fireworm up to his eye level. He held it a little closer and touched his forehead into its snout. It didn't burn as much as his hands did, it was warm though, the kind of warm that you'd feel when you snuggle under the blankets for a few more minutes of sleep on a winter morning.

He brought the fireworm back down to eye level. It let out a small chirp at him. He couldn't help but smile at the little thing, even as his eyes started to water.

After a moment, it chirped again, then tried to nip at Snotlout's nose. He laughed lightly as he pulled it away, but then the little hatchling decided his fingers were just as good of a target.

For a moment it nipped and bit at his fingers. It had an attitude already, a little spitfire.

It started to knead into Snotlout's palms after it had settled down, then curled up and laid down.

Snotlout lowered his hand again to give the hatchling a bit more cover from the wind. It was so small. He wondered if little fireworms could lose their heat like Hookfang had. He wondered who would be there to give them more now that the Queen was gone.

Snotlout didn't look away from the fireworm princess, even when his vision started to blur and little droplets of water trailed down his cheeks. He cradled the hatchling all the way back to the edge, and then until he made it back to his hut with Hookfang in tow.

He ignored the other riders. He couldn't talk to them right now.

He cradled the princess until he physically couldn't hold her without being burnt anymore, then he sat with Hookfang as she slept on the bigger dragon's snout.

The fireworms needed a new queen. And he would make sure they would get one, even if he had to raise a baby dragon to do it.

Snotlout woke up the next morning to an insistent itching on his hands. He grumbled something unintelligible as he started to wake up, opening his eyes blearily. He yawned, moving to rubbing his eyes, but when his hands clenched into fists a jolt of pain shot through them.

He yelped, much more awake afterwards. Hookfang, who he had fallen asleep leaning against, despite being in his hut, turned his long neck around to look at him. The dragon made a low crooning sound.

Snotlout looked down at his hands to see several blisters and deep red burns. He scrunched up his nose at the sight. He wasn't new to the kind of injury, riding a dragon that sets itself on fire will introduce a guy to burns in many painful places, but he still couldn't stand the sight of the raised skin.

Hookfang made a series of low rumbles that sounded almost like laughter. Snotlout turned to glare at him when he spotted a little glowing spot on Hookfang's snout.

Oh. he forgot. The fireworm queen. Thinking of the incident from last night sobered him even more than the burns did.

He stood up, working a small crick out of his neck. He always got those when he decided to nap leaning against Hookfang. Sure, it was annoying, but his dragon was so warm and really a perfect pillow.

Snotlout slowly approached the little fireworm. She was sleeping soundly, still curled tightly around herself. Snotlout kind of wanted to pet her, if he knew that that wouldn't make his burns ten times worse.

Hookfang crooned lightly, pushing his snout against Snotlout's chest. The viking placed the back of his hand (avoiding the burns as best he could) on Hookfang's snout. He rubbed it back and forth into small circles until pushed him lightly away.

Snotlout blinked at his dragon, who let out a huff before nudging Snotlout's hand again.

"What?" Snotlout snapped. He had a close bond with Hookfang, no amount of tossing or biting would make him doubt that, but sometimes he couldn't understand at all what the nightmare meant.

In response, as if Snotlout spoke dragon, Hookfang let out a small growl and a huff. He then nudged Snotlout's hand again. The Jorgenson rolled his eyes and started again with rubbing the small circles.

Hookfang jerked away with a loud snort.

"Do you want pats or not?" Snotlout asked indignantly. Hookfang gave him a look that reminded him uncannily of the one Astrid would give him when he was being an idiot (which was most of the time, in her opinion). The dragon nudged Snotlout's hand again, this time the burned side.

He frowned with realization. He would blame his slowness on it being early and him being in pain.

"Oh- fine! I'll go treat my hands." Snotlout relented finally, though he did not turn to go. For a moment he stared at the little fireworm. She still looked so fragile, so much could happen to her so easily. What if while he was gone-

Hookfang nudged him again, this time harsher, towards the door. Snotlout frowned.

"Okay, okay, but I'm coming back right after!" he ceded. The Jorgenson left the hut to head to the club house, he was pretty sure there were supplies there.

When he left his hut, he was assaulted by the bright sun which was much higher in the sky than he had thought. He had slept in. There would be no chance that he would be avoiding the other riders.

He sluggishly walked along the pathways that connected everyone's huts together. Despite how uncomfortable he felt he still couldn't chase away the blasting effects of sleep.

Snotlout eventually made his way to the clubhouse. He could hear people talking inside. He took in a shaky breath and released it with a long sigh.

When he entered the clubhouse, he saw Hiccup and Astrid sitting around the large table. Toothless was at the end of it, blowing a low flame into the dragon eye, which illuminated purple images on the wall.

"Snotlout!" Hiccup exclaimed once he noticed the viking's presence. "How are you feeling?" He asked nervously.

Snotlout frowned. Absolutely miserable, he thought.

"I'm alright," he grumbled. Before either of the other riders could say anything, he walked off towards the crates of extra supplies that were stacked up in the corner. He rummaged through them, irritating his hands even more to the point that his eyes started to water.

"What uh- whatcha looking for?" Hiccup asked. Snotlout heard Astrid scoff behind him.

"Burn cream and bandages." He answered stoutly. Hiccup had that weird tone that made things really awkward again. It was like he was trying to be comforting without mentioning the problem.

"How's the fireworm?" Astrid asked, much softer than Snotlout felt she had ever talked to him before. He frowned again.

"She's sleeping." He answered. He felt a wave of triumph as he finally found something that would help with the burns.

He didn't have much medical knowledge, but there were a few things he knew how to do well. He could stitch up wounds insanely well, his mother was an incredible seamstress and he couldn't count the amount of time Snotlout watched her work and tried to mimic her when he was little. Again, having a monstrous nightmare brought upon a lot of burns, so he sort of had to be good at treating those.

He gathered up the supplies he had gotten and cradled them against his chest with his elbow. Just brushing them against his hand made it hurt about a million times worse.

"So what are we gonna do with her?" Astrid asked once he had turned back around. It caught him off guard to say the least.

"What do you mean?" He asked, a defensive tone leaking into his voice.

Astrid and hiccup shared a glance.

"Well, you can't keep her. She has to learn how to live on her own if she's a fireworm princess." Hiccup explained. He sounded even more nervous.

"Hiccup, she hatched yesterday." Snotlout said simply. "Fireworms live in hives, and hers is gone, we are not going to just leave her in the wild." Snotlout had never seen a fireworm on its own unless its hive was very close, he doubted they could actually survive completely alone. He also was fairly certain the fireworm princess couldn't even chew her own food.

"Believe me, I understand that, but we've never trained a fireworm before," Hiccup reasoned. Snotlout let out another superficial sigh and resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"We never trained a scauldron either until we did, or a speedstinger, or any dragon for that matter." Snotlout pointed out, already making his way to the door. "If you had never tried to train Toothless we'd still be fighting dragons and losing our livestock every night." He snapped, walking out the door before either of the other riders could respond.

Snotlout made his way quickly back to his hut. The conversation didn't help his nerves at all about the little hatchling. He already knew that he wouldn't be letting her out of his sight for probably the next week.

Once he made it back inside his hut, his shoulders sagged. He went back to Hookfang, who was crooning and purring at the fireworm. Snotlout smiled to see her awake.

She was scuttling around on Hookfang's snout, climbing up on the top of his head and onto his horns. She sat atop one, her little tail dangling off and swaying back and forth. Hookfang's eyes trailed the slow, yet playful, movement.

Snotlout smiled at the sight. He would never admit it to anyone, but he adored baby dragons. He still remembered that first Snoggletog with the dragons, when he got to play with Hookfang's babies. He wondered how the little guys were doing. At least Gustav was somewhat taking care of one of them, though that didn't really expel much doubt.

"Hey little buddy!" Snotlout exclaimed once the fireworm noticed him. She chirped at him as he set down the supplies near his bed.

He sat at the edge of his bed, unwrapping some of the gauze to treat his hands. He put as much burn cream as he could before wrapping the burns. It was mostly his palms that had the worst of it, so he didn't have to lose all dexterity by wrapping his fingers together.

Once he was finished, he fell back onto his bed with his arms stretched out. He let out a rough sigh.

"Man, what am I gonna do with you?" He asked the little fireworm. She was staring at him from where she was still perched on Hookfang's horn. She chirped as if giving an answer.

The fireworm jumped off and skittered over to him. He sat up as she scrambled to climb onto his bed. That's a fire hazard waiting to happen, he thought immediately.

Snotlout picked her up as quickly as he could and placed her on his shoulder. He at least had padded leather there, so he would be safe for a time.

She immediately nipped at Snotlout's fingers as he tried to pull his hand away. He let out a playful yelp and she let go. She spun around in a circle several times before she tried nipping at his nose again.

"Hey!" He yelped, jerking his head away. He heard Hookfang laughing. "I'm not food." He grumbled at the fireworm, who only let out another small rasp.

She tried biting at him again until Snotlout picked her up and gave her back to Hookfang. The larger dragon crooned at the hatchling to get her attention, but she only stared at Snotlout.

She started wagging her tail as she took a step back.

"Please no." Snotlout begged miserably.

The fireworm jumped at his face, but he caught her quickly. He could smell faint smoke coming from his fresh bandages and he quickly set her down again onto Hookfang again.

Snotlout stumbled back before she could think of jumping again. She let out a small cry before hopping off of Hookfsng and scurrying across the floor until she made her way to Snotlout's feet.

"You're an insistent little spitfire." Snotlout grumbled. She tilted her head at him and chirped, then spun around again.

He sighed, then carefully picked her up again. Instead of letting him place her there, the fireworm crawled up his arms and settled on his shoulder. He could feel her warmth through the leather, and it was honestly nice. The little hatchling still didn't have as much of a flame as other fireworms, she probably would've set his hut on fire if she did.

Snotlout sat down against Hookfang again. The dragon let out a huff that blew against Snotlout's face. He pushed the dragon's head away playfully. Hookfang settled a few moments later.

Snotlout looked at the little fireworm. She fell asleep again. He could feel her breaths against his neck as she snored.

"We should name her, right?" He asked Hookfang, who only opened one of his eyes in response. "I mean, that would make it more difficult for Hiccup to try and get us to find another home for her." He added to himself.

At that, Hookfang shot up and let out a panicked roar. Snotlout fell back as Hookfang moved, and the fireworm woke up suddenly and scrambled away.

"Easy Hooky!" Snotlout exclaimed, "I won't let 'em do that!" He assured, holding his hands out in front of him to calm the dragon.

Hookfang still looked panicked, and his wings were spread out wide in a defensive position, but he started to lower his head.

Snotlout placed his hand on Hookfang's snout, and the dragon let out a worried croon.

"It's okay Hooky, we'll take care of her." He promised. "Speaking of which… where did she go?" He added with a tired voice. He turned around several times to see that the little rascal had disappeared.

"Oh no."

In the hour that it took them to find the fireworm, they had moved every piece of furniture in Snotlout's hut, Snotlout had discreetly checked everyone else's huts and totally didn't get caught at all by one Hiccup Haddock the third, and Hookfang had done several laps all over the island.

They found her under Snotlout's bed… attached to the bottom of the mattress upside down. Because of course that's where she was.

Once found, Hookfang had promptly curled himself around the maniac and trapped her under his wings. Snotlout had collapsed next to them after Hookfang deemed the hatchling safe.

He looked upon the devastation of his room, with furniture turned over and drawers wide open. There was also a very prominent burned hole in the bottom of his bed.

He looked down at the fireworm, who rasped quietly and stared up at him in response. He sighed and leaned his head against Hookfang.

"Yeah, you're definitely a Spitfire."