Hiccup was making himself dinner in the empty home. It had been two weeks since… it. That. The unspeakable event that had caused him to lay awake at night for hours with salty tears staining his cheeks and running down the sides of his face.
Now, in the quiet house, Hiccup was trying to get himself back to normal. Finding that his mother wasn't exactly the best cook he had taken it upon himself to make the food and keep himself healthy. It was the most he could do during a time like this. First it had just been grief. Then denial. Then more grief. Then quiet.
Today, he was attempting to get himself back under control. He was the chief now, wasn't he? So there he was, frying up a couple of fish in a pan over a smoking fire. As he sat and cooked, he thought of his dad. Not the recent memories… but the happier ones. The times just after the Red Death, when the island was at peace and his father had fully accepted him - as a Viking, and as a son. Without realizing what he was doing, Hiccup absentmindedly began to whistle. It was his parents' song. For the Dancing and the Dreaming. A sweet tune that lifted his heart a little as he continued to sit and watch the fire.
Valka found the door to the house open and assumed Hiccup must be home. She walked through the open door and into the house, treading lightly, in case her son was asleep upstairs. In a minute, she stopped in her tracks, listening in the hallway.
Whistling.
The tired woman's breath caught, and she edged towards the kitchen, where the whistling was coming from. It was their song. The one she and Stoick sang…. just before…
"Stoick?" She whispered to herself. She didn't even realize that she held a hand over her heart, and she peeked around the corner of the kitchen doorway.
….It was Hiccup. Now he was whistling away to the song that his own mother remembered so fondly.
Flipping over a fish in the pan, Hiccup was startled to find that he was crying. A few droplets dripped from the corners of his eyes and down to his nose and cheeks. He wiped them away with surprise. No. He didn't want to be crying again. Valka couldn't see his face from where she stood in secret, but she did hear the whistling stop. Please… she begged the boy in her mind, just let me hear it again…
Hiccup carefully took the pan off of the fire and put the fish on a plate, but he didn't touch it at all. Instead, he resumed the song - humming this time. He was too preoccupied to notice his mother, quietly listening in from the doorway. Then he started back at the beginning of the song, whistling again. Valka smiled as she pictured her husband whistling that tune to her. Just like he used to.
"You're more like your father than you know" she murmured softly, without her son hearing.
She would tell him later.
:::::::A/N::::::
I did say it was short. Hope it wasn't too boring, and thanks for reading!