Work Text:
Hiccup awoke in a panic. There was blood all over the pillow. Lots of it. His blood? He didn't know. He bolted up onto his hands and knees, staring at the blood.
Then he realized it was dripping down his face, crusting on his lips, his chin. He wiped at it with a hand, as if that would help, looked at the blood on his fingers.
He'd had his nose broken recently. The blood was probably from that, a part of the recovery.
"Hiccup?" Astrid asked groggily from beside him. "What are you...?"
And then she saw the blood in the early morning light, saw it on the pillow, his hand, his face. It was everywhere.
"Oh Thor!" she was up in an instant, coming over to his side. She had him sit down. "Is it still bleeding?" she asked. "Your nose?"
Hiccup wiped a finger under his nose. That confirmed it. "Yeah."
"Just give me a minute, okay?"
Astrid was rustling around in a chest, probably looking for cloths for Hiccup. Toothless was woken by all this commotion, and he came over in alarm, sniffing Hiccup in concern.
"Bud, I'm okay," Hiccup said. "Just a bloody nose."
With a lot of blood. But that was normal, right? He felt foolish for being so alarmed by it, by causing such a commotion.
Astrid came back over with a cloth, handed it to Hiccup so he could hold it under his nose. He had to breathe through his mouth. He tasted copper.
Astrid looked at the pillow for a long while. "I don't think that stain is going to come out," she said.
"Probably not."
Astrid sighed, then sat on the bed beside Hiccup. "You okay?"
"Just a little alarmed," Hiccup answered. "But yeah. I'm fine."
"Good." Astrid put a hand on his shoulder. "I still have to get that Dragon Hunter back for breaking your beautiful nose."
Hiccup let out a nasally laugh. "You like my nose?"
"Yeah. Who wouldn't?"
Hiccup decided now was not the time to argue about his self esteem with her. He shook his head, pulled the cloth away to see if his nose was still dripping blood. Finding that it was, he put the cloth back. Now to sit here, and wait for it to stop.