A/N: Hey, guys. So, this is just a little thing that I thought of when watching Race to the Edge. If you've seen it, y'know how there's that dragon-proof metal? Well, what if Hiccup's armor was made out of that metal, and Stoick hadn't reached him in time?

I'm still working on my Modern AU, Scrawny, but that fic is going to be at least forty chapters long, and this is probably going to be about five, so I just thought I'd get it out of my head and written down while it's still fresh. If you have any thoughts or critiques, please review, I love feedback! :D

"Knock it off!" Hiccup holds his hand out at Toothless, desperately trying to find his best friend in the monster advancing on him.

"Stop! Snap out of it!" The slit-eyed creature growls and takes another large step forward.

Stoick is running, sprinting, trying to get to his son. He throws his axe, hoping to sever the rope of a large war machine to create a bridge that will bring him to Hiccup faster.

But the axe misses it's mark, and the Berkian chief curses vemenantly as he is forced to go around the pile of debris. He will make it to his son. He has to.

"Toothless! No! Toothless! Don't!" Hiccup is begging, pleading.

Stoick is too far away. "Hiccup!" He shouts.

"STOP!" Hiccup's hands are in front of him, his entire being focused on the now-unrecognizable Night Fury in front of him.

"SON!" Stoick screams. He's only thirty feet away, but the beast's mouth is open, gas spilling over his jaws.

Hiccup turns sideways and puts up his arms, trying to shield his face. There's a light in the back of Toothless's throat, the same light that has guided Hiccup through dark tunnels and cloudy night skies. The same light that has protected him from countless foes and dangers. The same light that destroyed the Red Death. The same light that will shortly destroy him. In the split second before the plasma exits the dragon, time freezes, and only one thought crosses his mind.

But, I just got a family.

There's a blinding whiteness in front of his eyes, and the world disappears.

"NO!" Stoick never thought he could make the sound that came out of his mouth when he sees his boy fly backwards into the wall of ice. He doesn't even notice that he's collapsed to his knees. His son... his son is laying on his side, the causer of that effect crouched near him, panting deeply. Stoick knows that he should probably shove the beast away from the... body, but he can't. He can't move. He can't comprehend what just happened. He can't feel anything, not the snow seeping through his pants and chilling his knees, not the tears streaming down his face into his beard.

He is jolted back into reality when something crashes into him from behind and hugs his arm.

"No no no no no," Valka is sobbing onto his shoulder.

They stand, each dragging the other one up, and stumble towards their fallen son as fast as their shaking legs can carry them. Drago is no where to be seen, apparently having decided that his work was done.

Stoick falls onto his knees again in front of Hiccup and gently turns his son over onto his back.

"Hiccup, oh, Hiccup, Hiccup," he repeats in whispers.

Under his armor, Hiccup shirt is smoking, and a few holes reveal burned and charred skin underneath. His hands are red with the effects of attempting to defend himself from the blast. A burn snakes up the left side of his face, and the ends of his hair are black and smoldering. Stoick lightly pats the side of his head to put out the sparks on the dark auburn locks.

Valka's trembling fingers reach toward the side of of Hiccup's neck that isn't scorched.

Please, please, please, I can't lose him again, she prays desperately in her mind.

She presses her index and middle fingers to her son's pulse point. For moment, she feels nothing and almost falls apart. But then—

Thump...

Thump...

Thump...

It's small, and weak, but it's there.

"Stoick," she rasps disbelieving, "Stoick," she repeats, louder and panicked. How in Valhalla could he have survived this?

Her husband sees her fingers and hears her tone. He quickly shoves her hand aside and feels Hiccup's neck himself.

He breaths a sigh of amazement and smiles, but the tears are still in his eyes. "How do you keep doing this, son?" He whispers, shocked that Hiccup has somehow survived again. He wants to scream, but he's not sure if it's from joy or worry. Those burns on Hiccup's chest, arm, and face...

Hiccup's lips break open and a whimpered groan escapes them. His barely moving chest hitches and sucks in a pained breath.

Valka's hands fly up to her mouth. "Oh Gods, he's alive, he's alive," she sobs.

"HICCUP!" The scream of an unfamiliar voice to Valka rips through the air from above. There's the whump of a dragon landing and the sound of sprinting footsteps. The blonde girl that Valka had seen riding the Nadder runs up to the them. She collapses onto her knees beside Stoick.

"Oh my Gods, oh my Gods, is he...?" She gasps frantically, reaching out for the boy in front of her, not sure if she should touch him.

Stock's eyes remain fixed on his son. "He's alive, Astrid, he's alive," he says in a steadier voice than before, and the girl exhales in a way similar to Stoick's sigh of relief.

Astrid? Valka thinks. Astrid Hofferson? That little girl born a couple months after Hiccup?

Suddenly, a warbled moan comes from behind. The three Vikings turn to see a frightened, wide-eyed Night Fury inching his way toward his fallen friend.

"Toothless," Stoick whispers. In one part of his mind, he wants to shove the beast away, the beast that did this. In the other, he knows that this is not the dragon's fault.

It is Drago's.

If his son wasn't laying in front of him, just barely clinging to life, Stoick would be tracking down the madman and thinking up different ways of how to stick his head on a stake.

But his son is laying in front of him, barely clinging onto life. And by the way that Hiccup's breath is becoming more labored and what remaining color in his cheeks is fading, Stoick can tell that his grip on the living world is slipping.

A/N: I really like writing injured/sick Hiccup. It just seems like such a good opportunity for character bonding. Please review, I hope you liked it!