and then she'd say, 'it's okay, i got lost on the way, but i'm a supergirl and supergirls don't cry'

[lucked]

Up until now, everything's been easy. As strange as it might be for most people to imagine, Claire Bennet's leap off the Compound has been the best thing that's happened to her yet on Tabula Rasa. Maybe it isn't the healthiest- after all, where the leap from the Compound was supposed to help her shed that mask, come face to face with all that fate'

Comments

[a_real_viking]

"Mighty Thor," Hiccup breathed, standing in the doorway. He knew all about bad injuries, had some himself now, but it was still a shock to see any of his friends like that. With the tousled blond hair it was all too easy to imagine Astrid on that hospital cot.

"Though, uh, I guess that's probably not the right thing to say. Um..."

Toothless smacked him with an ear and slipped past him to get a better look at her.

"You okay?"

[lucked]

As much as Claire loved Mr. Muggles, there was no doubt in her mind that there were a lot of pets on the island who were a fair amount smarter than her Pomeranian. Toothless just happened to be one of them. While the blonde completely expected to return to her hut with Mr. Muggles being unaware that anything had happened at all, the dragon looked concerned, immediately trying to take in the amount of damage that had been done to her. It made Claire wonder how often Vikings got injured, especially considering Hiccup's leg.

"I'm as okay as I can be?" Claire offered with a hopeful smile, glad that Hiccup had arrived, and glad that he hadn't immediately started questioning her like so many other people had. "I mean, stuck in bed, kind of hurting around the chest, but things could a whole lot worse. And now I've got a Viking and a dragon both visiting me at once. I'd say that's kind of a win."

[a_real_viking]

"Well yeah, visit from a dragon is pretty cool," Hiccup agreed, leaving himself off that list. He dragged over a chair and sat down, watching Toothless circle her cot, head rising up and down as he peered at her and then at some part of the bed before popping up again, paws on the edge of her bed.

"I think he's worried you're going to take off the blanket and be missing some parts."

[lucked]

All things considered, Hiccup mentioned the loss of limb pretty lightly, to the point where Claire wasn't entirely sure how to respond. Maybe it was just a Viking thing, she told herself; without medical care as advanced as they had it in the twenty-first century, even on the island itself with its limited resources, it shouldn't have been too uncommon for people to lose a leg here and there. Still, she was sure that it couldn't have been easy for Hiccup to adjust, either. There were some things that were just impossible to fully anticipate.

"Don't sell yourself short, Hiccup," she told him first, looking over fondly before she exhaled deeply, watching Toothless nose around. "And well, if it makes Toothless feel better, I got off easily enough." Claire tugged at her sheets, pulling them to the side to reveal both legs, ten toes, nothing out of the ordinary save for the heavy bandages wrapped around her chest, most of which were hidden by the hospital gown.

"See?"

[a_real_viking]

"Kinda hard not to when I'm missing pieces," he said, but it was a bad joke and they knew it. "Sorry, it's just normal back home."

Toothless' eyes darted over her limbs before he peered at her, his nose scant inches from her own. After he was satisfied, the dragon dropped to his paws again and settled for just sitting hear her.

"I'm glad you're doing...you know, pretty okay."

[lucked]

"Yeah, we learned about Vikings back home, during our classes. Not a lot, since I think the records aren't really as extensive as a lot of other groups throughout history, but in general medicine back then was a lot less advanced," Claire nodded, taking the conversation practically, trying not to make too big of a deal of Hiccup's missing leg, though she couldn't help but feel a pinch of remorse, wishing that he'd gotten to the island in time for them to tend to it well. Possibly even save the use of the leg.

Blonde tresses fell in front of her eyes as a corner of Claire's lips quirked up in a soft smile. "Pretty okay's about right," she confirmed. "I'm sorry if I worried, you know, either of you. Just need to be more careful next time, I guess."

[a_real_viking]

Advanced technology or not, Hiccup wasn't sure there was much that could be done for a case of "crashed toward a giant fireball of death" but he'd long come to terms with his leg. Some days, he even liked it. A bit banged up and scarred but still trekking on the way he was made him feel more like a real Viking, one who could take a hit and still live.

"Hey, don't apologize. I mean, you're the one who got hurt." Though he had to admit he did have questions. What had she been doing on top of the roof that she'd fallen from it being chief among them, but even he knew there were times and places for things. "You just gotta worry about feeling better."

[lucked]

Her eyes lingered on Hiccup for a while before Claire broke out into a wide smile. There was just something about the Viking, something about his carefree attitude that Claire couldn't help but enjoy, having strayed so far from that herself. Anything and anyone that could make her relax a bit those days, save for pot or drink, was something that Claire welcomed into her life, even if she wasn't sure that she quite deserved it. That level of acceptance.

Grinning, her gaze fell down to her sheets briefly before she looked back up with an arched brow. "Well, I mean, with visitors awesome enough to keep me in good spirits, I'm definitely sure that it'll be no time at all. Plus, the food that they serve to people in the clinic? Amazing. Back where I lived in my world, hospitals didn't exactly have the time to cater to everything that their patients wanted. Sometimes things tasted pretty gross."

[a_real_viking]

Not quite carefree, Hiccup would have said. Unwilling to be burdened was closer, but either way he could return her wide smile as he pulled over a chair to sit so he could stay a while. "So far, everything I've had here is an improvement over Berk. We're not exactly an epicurean paradise."

He leaned back in his chair and tried to remember what they'd had, grinning ruefully. "We had our choices of short, scrubby greens. Or meat. Smoked meat. Grilled meat. Meat in a bag..."

[lucked]

"Well, I come from Texas, which... is pretty big on meat," Claire had to admit, raising a brow with a smile. "Beef was pretty big on the house, and we're all big fans of chicken when it's not overdone, but no pastries to come after the meat, and I'd be totally dead." With how many cupcakes she'd been baking before the Compound leap, Claire wondered how many more dozens she'd make until she healed enough to go traipsing around the island again.

"Croissants, pies, cupcakes- even just baking them's a whole lot better than nothing," she grinned. "So I guess having the bakery around is a definite plus."

[a_real_viking]

"We had fish and sheep mostly, or whatever was in the woods," Hiccup explained, trying to figure out what kind of animal a 'beef' was. "And I like the boar they have here."

Her mention of sweets put a sheepish look on his face and he rubbed his forehead with the heel of his hand, "Never had sweets before we came here though. Not sugar or cake or, uh, chocolate, I mean."

[lucked]

"Sheep is good! I always like a good lamb chop, like when they take a chop of the meat and fry it lightly over oil? The meat really seems to have a unique flavor to it, also really great in stew and with a piece of soda bread. Or maybe that's just the potential Irish in my mixed background speaking," she grinned, before her brows furrowed, hands waving about dismissively. "God, I'm sorry, that... probably doesn't mean much to you either. Maybe someday I should find a general world history book so that you have some idea of what I mean."

Sitting up again and pushing her covers away slightly, Claire grinned. "As for sweets, oh god, just make sure you're careful with them. It's so easy to overeat sugary things and make yourself totally sick in the process."

[a_real_viking]

The way they ate sheep usually meant killing off one of the grazers, when the meat was old, flavorful, but a bit tough. It also usually meant a lot of slow-roasting over an open fire. Recently, someone had gotten clever and figured out how to render salt out of the water and that had been an improvement but...Berk was Berk. "Yeah, when we had it, we'd roast a couple of them whole for the village."

His smile grew distinctly more sheepish at the mention of overeating. "Yeah, we found that out on Valentine's Day. You, uh, you know how dogs and cats can't eat chocolate? Apparently neither can a dragon..."

[lucked]

Claire's brows furrowed immediately upon hearing about Toothless' experience with the chocolate, face pulling into a grimace. She could only imagine how much grief Mr. Muggles would have given her if he ever buried his face into a box of Godivas; fortunately, her mother had always been careful about keeping sweets puppy-safe around the house. Licking her lower lip, she laughed lightly, casting the dragon a sympathetic gaze.

"Yeeeah, I'm guessing there are a lot of sweets that would be off-limits for him. Maybe next time, you can look and see if the bookshelf will give you advice? Or see the island's vet, Doctor... Magnus, I think."

[a_real_viking]

At the mention of Helen, Hiccup nodded. "Yeah, she was a lifesaver. She was the one who taught me about that kind of stuff and then she helped me watch over him while he got better."

And good thing too. Hiccup was a lot of firsts; first Viking who wouldn't kill a dragon; first Viking to ride a dragon. Adding 'first Viking to kill a dragon via accidental food poisoning' seemed like kind of a step down.