ONE -

In a small hospital on the island of Berk, Hiccup sat on an exam table, his left leg spread the length of it. His left foot was swollen, bruised, and covered in scars. As usual.

"I think the surgery went well," Stoick said, standing next to him. His bulky middle-aged frame dwarfed his skinny 16 year-old son.

"Hiccup's a resilient young man," the doctor responded as he examined Hiccup's leg. He applied some pressure to the ankle and watched Hiccup wince. "Does that still hurt?" he asked.

Hiccup glanced at Stoick's hopeful face before shaking his head.

"I knew it would work," Stoick said. "So, when can my lad get back to the football club?"

"Sorry, but I doubt he'll ever kick a football again," the doctor said.

"But what about the surgeries? We went in six times, didn't we?"

"Eight," Hiccup corrected him.

"We've done what we can, Mr. Haddock," the doctor said. "But it's been a year and a half since Hiccup's hiking accident. This is probably all the progress we're going to see. Be thankful he doesn't need crutches anymore."

"But can't you graft more? That, down there-" Stoick suggested.

Hiccup grimaced at the suggestion. "I'm tired of being torn up," he said to his father. Then addressing the doctor, he asked, "Is there anything you can do for the pain?"

"We can try a different medication if the current one isn't working."

"I'm talking about the cause, not the symptom." Hiccup looked his doctor in the eyes while he said it. He knew there was another option, but he didn't want to be the one to say it. Stoick wouldn't take him seriously if he said it. It had to come out of the doctor's mouth.

The doctor obliged. He said, "We can amputate."

"No!" Stoick exclaimed. "You're not going to mutilate my son!"

"Right, because grafting tissue to make a Frankenstein foot isn't mutilation," Hiccup shot back.

"You stay out of this," Stoick said.

"I'm the only one in this!"

"Sirs, sirs," the doctor insisted. "Can we talk about this calmly?"

"You can fix his foot," Stoick commanded.

TWO -

"Would you mind having a boyfriend with a peg leg?" Hiccup asked. He sat in the twins' living room on a torn fake leather sofa. Black metal played through large stereo speakers, the proper accompaniment to the dark Norwegian winter outside.

"What, like a pirate?" Ruffnut responded.

"I guess," Hiccup said, taking a puff from Ruffnut's joint. He liked the way the smoke filled him, how it made the pain and the rest of his life just a little more tolerable. "Well, maybe not a peg leg; I think modern medicine can do a little better than that. But even a peg leg would be better than this."

"So you're actually gonna do it?" Tuffnut asked.

"Amputate?"

"Yeah."

"I'd like to," Hiccup explained. "I've been thinking about it for a while. I can't take much more of this pain, that's for sure."

"So you're gonna do it?"

Hiccup shook his head and sighed. "Dad won't let me. He only sees that I have two feet. He just doesn't get that one of them is making me miserable. And until I'm 18, they need his consent."

"That's only two years," Ruffnut said.

"You try walking on broken glass every day," Hiccup said. "I can't even walk to your house without needing to ice down my foot. Never mind running or any other fun stuff! I've barely done that since the accident, and I'm not waiting two years to do it again." He unwrapped the towel on top of his foot. "Speaking of ice, could you get me more? This just melted."

"Is your foot ever not covered in ice?" Ruffnut remarked.

"Not if I can help it," Hiccup said.

"Do that long enough, you'll freeze it off."

Hiccup looked at Ruffnut, considered her words, and became very quiet.

THREE -

The morning sky was pitch black and wouldn't change for at least another three hours, when the sun would briefly rise over the horizon for lunch before leaving the world dark again.

Hiccup sat on the beach, carefully perched on a rock by the shore. Despite his heavy snowsuit, he still shivered from sitting in the cold for so long. Every part of him was bundled up except for his left foot, which he had submerged in the cold salt water. He had wrapped a tourniquet around his bare calf in an effort to limit the damage to the rest of his body, though as time passed and the cold worked its way through him, he wondered how effective it was.

The thought of limping home on a not-quite frozen foot kept Hiccup in place, though he didn't want to die here either. This had seemed like a much better idea in the twins' warm, toasty living room.

"Hiccup!" Stoick exclaimed. "I've been looking all over for you!"

Hiccup tried to respond but his teeth chattered too much. He shrugged instead, a frigid hunch against the harsh wind.

"Why are you out here?" Stoick continued. "Why-?" Then he saw the bare foot in the freezing water. "Are you trying to get frostbite?!"

Jaw shaking with cold, Hiccup was finally able to get out a response: "Maybe."

Stoick stared at Hiccup for what seemed like a very long time. Then in a surprised voice, he asked, "Is it really that bad?"

Using his hands to lift his knee, Hiccup pulled his leg out of the water. He used his flashlight to point out the light blue flesh and said, "This feels better than what I deal with every day."

"But it's your foot," Stoick argued, albeit with less conviction than before.

"Not since the accident."

"You really think you'd be better off?" Stoick asked. His nose became stuffy and he sniffed a bit. Blasted cold.

Hiccup succumbed to the same stuffiness. Wiping what was obviously frost from his eyes, he pleaded, "I couldn't be much worse!"

"Okay," Stoick said. "I guess I'd rather have you maimed than frozen to death. Let's go home. I'll call the doctor."

END

Acknowledgements: I'd like to thank not being able to sleep, reading boatloads of HTTYD fan fiction at 4 a.m., and being just conscious enough to use a word processor.