The Unwanted Gift Chapter 1
Hiccup stood up from his bed, sighing as he stretched his muscles from his long day of work at the blacksmith. He heard the loud clank of metal onto wood, and he cringed...he still hadn't gotten used to that sound yet, despite it having been weeks since he had lost his leg to the Red Death.
Toothless watched, bored out of his mind and hoping that Hiccup would finally have the time to go flying with him today. Although he whined a bit in concern at his rider's reaction to his new metal leg and went to go nuzzle the side of his human's face.
Hiccup grinned and scratched the Night Fury under his chin. "I know, you've been waiting all day...well, I'm well rested and I think I can put up with missing a limb long enough to head out with you, buddy. Ready to go out?"
Toothless chirped in the affirmative, but he couldn't help but frown internally from how Hiccup's leg seemed to burden them more and more lately. It didn't prevent the boy from taking him out flying like they always did, but he noticed that it seemed to inconvenience Hiccup during these outings.
Hiccup sighed as he grabbed the flying equipment off his desk, and attached it to Toothless, tugging it to make sure it fit fine. Then slowly, he threw his leg across the dragon's back and put his prosthetic into its slot, feeling a shiver go through him at the unnatural feeling.
The dragon stared straight ahead and laid perfectly still, but his eyes creased together in concern when he heard Hiccup's barely-audible pained gasp. His rider always tried to hide how uncomfortable he felt, but even with that tooth-filled smile his human would show him, Toothless knew that the boy was doing it more for his dragon's sake than his own. He was pretty sure that if he didn't need the occasional flight to prevent ground fatigue, Hiccup would be in bed, nursing his leg in sorrow whenever he thought the dragon wasn't around.
And it wasn't long before both of them were airborne, flying around the island of Berk and enjoying themselves without anything to interrupt them. Although, to the Fury's dismay, it would be hampered by his rider's leg yet again.
Hiccup held back a gasp as he felt his metal leg jerk unnaturally. He leaned down to his dragon's ear.
"Alright, Toothless, I'm sorry, but can we land for a moment? I think my leg is...not right." he finished, patting the dragon's head.
Toothless frowned, but prevented himself from whining in irritation. These interruptions were getting more frequent as of late, but he liked his rider too much to stubbornly refuse. Since they had barely gotten into the air, he decided to turn towards the cove they usually hung out in. And within a few flaps of his wings, the two were soon inside their own private area, since almost no one else in Berk knew of this place.
Hiccup slid off of Toothless's back, then pulled his prosthetic off and studied it for a few minutes. After finding that there was nothing wrong with it, he tossed it aside angrily and put his head into his hands, trying to calm himself down.
The dragon tried hard to prevent himself from wanting to do anything that might come across as pitying to hiccup, but released a small whine at his rider's discomfort. The human hated to feel pitied and Toothless had once been smacked on the nose by an irritated Hiccup when he did so on one of Hiccup's bad days. However, after that action was immediately followed by the boy's stuttered apologies, which did not stop for a week even though he'd forgiven Hiccup before the first apology, he understood that the human's leg was the problem.
Hiccup looked up from his hands to his pathetic stump of a leg, and he rubbed it, although he wanted nothing more than to not see it again. He tore away from it and looked up at Toothless, whose expression conveyed sympathy. Hiccup sighed yet again, shaking his head as the memory of what he had done to Toothless a week ago came back.
