Work Text:
Hiccup is far too still.
Stoick keeps his vigil next to his son, reassuring himself by watching the boy's chest rise and fall with each breath. He studiously tries to ignore the flat space beneath the blanket where the lower part of his left leg should be. Far too young to be losing limbs. The village Healing Woman had removed the damaged remnants of the lower leg, dosing the unconscious boy with hemlock before she went to work.
Stoick hadn't been able to watch.
She has assured Stoick that the leg was healing well, and that Hiccup would wake up 'When he was ready'.
He wouldn't be happy until he saw the boy up and talking again.
Hiccup had never been a still child. Quiet, yes, but not still. Always getting into something new, and even when sitting, he was always fidgeting, drawing, asking questions. As a baby, he would squirm in his sleep all night long, and watch everything intently through the day.
It unnerved the Chief to see his son lying so still and quiet after two weeks.
He wonders if Hiccup will be able to forgive him when he wakes.
Every time Stoick dozes, he is greeted by memories. Yelling at Hiccup, casting him aside after the disaster in the ring. Hiccup risking his life for that dragon, and the battle with that monster. Hiccup falling, with nothing Stoick can do to help him.
He knows he hasn't been what Hiccup needed for so long, but when Hiccup wakes, he intends to try and correct those mistakes.