Hello Everyone! So, this may be a bit sad, but hopefully, in the end, it's happy. In my mind, Hiccup and Toothless visit each other despite them being apart. (The song is "In Dreams" by Howard Shore from Lord of the Rings.) Enjoy!

Rubbing his tired eyes with one hand, Hiccup opened the door to his house with the other. It was still not quite finished yet. The roof at the moment only draped over half of the house, and the second floor needed to be built. However, he was so busy helping build all the other houses and forging various things that he had not had the time to help put in the work to finish the house for him and Valka. It had been four weeks since the dragons had left for the Hidden World, and work seemed to go at a remarkably slower place. Was it this slow before they had dragons to help with the labor?

"Hey, Mom, sorry I'm late," Hiccup said, stifling a yawn.

"Hello, sweetheart," Valka smiled, giving him a hug. "How were things today?"

"Slow, per usual," Hiccup replied with a tired smile. "Things haven't been as easy since-" He stopped and looked down. "Since the dragons left." Then, straightening up, he added, "But I promise you, I'm gonna finish the roof by Saturday."

"You don't have to do that," Valka said. "You know, I'm quite handy by myself. Besides, don't you think you're spreading yourself a little thin?"

Hiccup swallowed. "Dad always could do it."

"But your father also knew when to take care of himself," Valka added, gripping his shoulders. "Hiccup, you barely eat, and I know despite what you want me to think, you're not sleeping at all. You can't help others if you're working nonstop and wearing yourself out."

"Mom, you sound like Astrid," Hiccup sighed, breaking away from her hold. "Look, I'm totally fine. I don't eat because I'm just not hungry, and the-the not-sleeping thing? I've just become a night owl, that's all."

But Valka shook her head. "I know what you're doing. You're trying to cover up your emotions. Your father did it, too, because he believed emotions were weakness. But that is one of your best qualities, sweetheart. It's alright to show you're hurting."

Hiccup looked down, unable to meet his mother's green eyes. "I'm not-not hurting, if that's what you think. And if I was, if I was hiding my emotions as you say, maybe it's because e-everyone else is upset, and I don't have time to be weepy and grieving like everyone else! I can't do that, Mom, 'cause everyone's counting on me, and I don't have time to grieve like everyone else even if I-"

He stopped; his voice suddenly went from calm to upset in just seconds. He had to calm down.

Valka touched his shoulder. "I know you miss Toothless, Hiccup, but you don't have to hide those emotions by working so hard. It's alright to be sad when you have lost someone you love."

Hiccup's eyes then jerked up at her as he suddenly snapped, "Wh-what would you know about loss, huh? Considering you-you abandoned me and Dad for, what, twenty years without trying to come back, I-I don't think you should be talking about loss. If you actually felt like you lost us, you'd have tried to come back to us, and maybe-maybe things could have been better, and I wouldn't have had to grow up without a mother."

These words seemed to cut Valka deeply, especially since they were coming from her own son.

Hiccup then felt horrified with himself. "I-I'm sorry, Mom, I don't know why I said that, I. . .I shouldn't have. I know you meant what was best. I didn't mean any of that. I guess the week's just catching up to me-"

"No, you don't have to apologize," Valka whispered. "What you said was true: I was selfish and wrong to abandon you like that. I should have been there for you, but I want to be here for you now, if you'll allow me."

Hiccup did not feel like crying, but everything hurt inside from him bottling his sadness up for over a month. He could not keep it in anymore; he needed comfort.

Embracing his mother, he buried his face in her shoulder as he whispered, "I miss him, Mom. I just miss him. . .so much. It just seems like everytime things start going right, I have to lose someone. And now I've lost Toothless. Forever."

"Not forever," Valka soothed, rubbing the back of his head. "He's still a part of you."

"But it feels like he's been ripped from me," Hiccup breathed.

"It's alright, sweetheart, I know. I know this is hard for you. Thank you for opening up to me."

"I just wish he was here with me. I don't know if I can do this. . .without. . .him. . ."

Hiccup's shoulders slumped forward. His body seemed to start going limp all of a sudden. Everything was spinning. His stinging eyes felt very warm.

Valka pulled away to look into his eyes. "Come sit with me by the fire."

"But I c-can't," Hiccup began, until a yawn interrupted his words. "I have to work on the blueprints for-for the. . .the things with the. . .things. You know, those things."

"Hiccup, you're so overtired you can barely stand, and you can't even remember the word 'house'," Valka said with a small chuckle.

"I'm f-fine," Hiccup yawned as his eyes began to close, but he kept them open. "I just forget words sometimes. Ask. . .ask, you know, her. Her, she's, you know."

"Astrid?" Valka offered with a small smile.

Hiccup smiled tiredly. "Y-yeah, Astrid. She's. . .gods, she's beautiful-"

Valka kissed Hiccup on the cheek. "Come sit with me, won't you?"

After a moment's thought, Hiccup nodded slowly. "Okay. . .just-just for a bit."

Guiding him, Valka and Hiccup walked to the fireplace. His body feeling heavy, Hiccup leaned against his mother's shoulder while she played with his tousled hair.

"I used to think. . ." Hiccup began. "I used to think that Toothless and I. . .that we'd always be together. That we'd see the whole world together. But I guess. . .sometimes things don't go the way you plan them."

"I hope you saw some of the world with him," Valka said.

"We did actually," Hiccup said, blinking in the light of the fire. "We actually got to see a lot of islands with amazing dragons. We actually had our own island for a while. Dragon's Edge. It was amazing. You should see it sometime. After we finish New Berk. But it's. . .so far away. And it'd take awhile. . .to get there now, by ship. Ships. I have to go work on things for ships. . ."

"You don't have to right now," Valka coaxed. "Tell me about this island of yours."

"Well," Hiccup started, warmth rolling over him, "it was cliffy, I guess, with a big mountain and all these beautiful woods. By the forest, there was this amazing cliff where you could overlook the horizon, and. . .it was my favorite spot to be with Toothless. Heh, I still. . .I still remember Toothless rolling around in the grass because it was so soft. He loved it as much as I did. It was so. . .was so peaceful. . .there. . ."

Hiccup's head drooped and began to slide off Valka's shoulder, so she guided him to her lap.

"Here, lie down," Valka whispered.

"Okay," Hiccup murmured, sinking down until his head rested on her lap.

Stroking his forehead, Valka murmured, "It sounds like a beautiful place. I wish I could have seen you and Toothless there."

"Oh, you'd have loved it, Mom," Hiccup sighed, watching the embers dance before him. "Toothless and I, we'd go flying every morning around it. Oh, it was great. . ."

Hiccup's weary limbs became heavier and heavier by the second. The warmth from the fire produced a lulling effect, causing drowsiness to flow through him. His warm eyes began to droop. It became harder to speak as he began to succumb to sleep.

"Mom. . .do you think. . .do you think Toothless. . .still thinks about. . .me?"

"Of course he does, sweetheart," Valka soothed, bending down to kiss him. "He loves you, like you do him."

"Y-yeah. . .I love him. . .I love you, bud. . ."

Valka began humming a lullaby that Hiccup used to sing to Toothless when he had trouble sleeping. Toothless, he loved this song.

Quietly, Valka sang:

"When the cold of winter comes

Starless night will cover day

In the veiling of the sun

We will walk in bitter rain. . .

But in dreams, I can hear your name

And in dreams, we will meet again. . ."

Hiccup's eyelids were barely open now. They felt heavier than boulders. On the tips of the flames, Hiccup saw blue fire. Blue fire, almost purple, like Toothless' plasma blasts.

As Hiccup's eyes closed, he murmured sleepily, "Toothless. . .I wish. . .you were here. . .with. . . me. . ."

He felt Valka pass a gentle hand over his face. "Sweet dreams, darling."

"Mm," Hiccup sighed, and he fell fast asleep.

. . .

Toothless lay down on the soft sand, gazing upon the smooth, glassy water. In the water, he saw the reflection of his green eyes. Green eyes. Hiccup's eyes were green. Not an ugly, murky green, but a sparkling emerald green, like his own. Hiccup. His rider. His friend. In a way, almost his brother. Toothless never thought that he would ever come to love a human after seeing those wretches kill so many of his own. Dragons only raided humans because they needed to survive and only attacked when necessary. At least, most of the dragons. If you were a Changewing or one of those other nasty dragons, you attacked and killed because you enjoyed it. Toothless hated the humans for quite some time. Stoick the Vast, in particular. He imprisoned Stormfly whom he had been best friends with since childhood and forced her to be used for practice for dragon hunting.

That was why every night, he would attack Berk, not to kill or steal food, but to sabotage the Vikings and to help the other dragons captured and shot down. But then, that fateful night, he himself was shot down and fell from the sky into the woods to be found by a boy. Stoick's boy. Hiccup. He was a small, wiry thing, but he actually looked like he was going to plunge that dagger into his heart. Toothless, for the first time in his life, actually felt fear. He was going to die. But staring into the boy's green eyes, Hiccup looked as frightened as he was. As Toothless stared at him, he saw himself.

After Hiccup set him free, Toothless soon saw that there was something different about this human, this boy. When Hiccup looked at him, Toothless did not see hate in his eyes. He saw wonder. He was not like most humans who feared or hated dragons. Somehow, Hiccup had the soul of a dragon. Toothless still remembered their first flight where they worked together.

Putting a hand to his slightly burnt hair, Hiccup had muttered, "I always wondered what it felt like. Flying, I mean. When I was young, I'd see a dragon soaring near the clouds, and I wondered. . .what it was like. I even sometimes pretended to be a dragon."

The boy gave a contented sigh. "But now that I've actually done it, I know now why you were so upset to lose your tail. Flying, it's so freeing. I think, for the first time in my life, I actually felt happy."

Toothless gave Hiccup a small smile.

Hiccup, hugging his knees, laughed at himself a little. "But whatever, you probably can't even understand a word I'm saying anyways."

Then, Toothless growled quietly and looked Hiccup in the eyes, hoping to somehow tell him that he did understand him.

Hiccup looked back at him in wonder. "Do you-do you-? Do you understand me?"

Toothless nodded. Yes, I understand you perfectly.

Hiccup laughed. "Everything we know about you guys is wrong. You aren't mindless at all; you're intelligent. It's amazing. You're amazing, Toothless."

Toothless then asked him silently, Why? Why do you risk the entire village coming after you, just to come and spend time with me?

Affectionately, Hiccup stroked his forehead. "Because you're my friend. Probably my only one, and, to be honest, I somehow feel connected with you. You're the only one who takes me as I am, and I want to do the same for you."

With a gummy smile, Toothless licked him.

Embracing him, Hiccup whispered, "I promise you, I'll never leave you."

These words echoed in Toothless' mind. Oh, what had he done? Hiccup said he would never leave him, but what had he gone and done? He had left his best friend all alone. He was supposed to be there for him. Thinking back, Hiccup had always stood by him, but Toothless, he was the one who was always the one leaving. He left him in that metal contraption when he was drowning. He left him to find the Light Fury.

Toothless growled in sadness. Oh, Hiccup. I miss you. So much. As the water rippled quietly, his eyes began to flutter. He was tired from flying so much today. Somehow, he never felt this tired when carrying Hiccup on his back. Not that he was ever much weight to carry. As sleepiness overcame him, he could have sworn he heard Hiccup's voice, singing that lullaby he always sang to help him sleep.

". . .But in dreams, I can hear your name

And in dreams, we will meet again. . ."

As Toothless drifted off to sleep, he thought, Hiccup, I wish you were here with me.

He slipped into a dream, but this dream somehow felt different than normal. Opening his eyes, he glanced left and right. He was on the cliff of Dragon's Edge, and there, sound asleep against a tree, was Hiccup.