Title: Parting

Summary: "I'm sorry you're a part of it."

Disclaimer: What part of FAN FICTION is hard to understand? I don't own Beauty and the Beast, and I don't own How to Train Your Dragon. They belong to whoever they do. I'm not here to make money; I'm just here to entertain.

It was all so strange. So very, very strange.

He wasn't mourning at all.

Let's start from the beginning.

The sun rose in Burk, gray and ordinary, telling the Hairy Hooligans that it was time to begin another day that promised nothing to new. But there was.

Something new, that is.

Stoick the Vast rolled on the bed he was sleeping on. He was mildly disturbed by something. There was something new.

Something new…

Something awkward…

Something…missing…?

He opened his eyes (who could sleep when there was something mysterious going on?) and found that Valhallarama had gone from their bed. That wasn't particularly new, whoever woke up first would often make breakfast before waking anyone else up. One could also eat at the Great Hall, but it was a Haddock tradition to eat the first meal of the day with the family. But there was something else…

Stoick put it out of his mind and got up anyway. There was a busy day ahead of him, and he needed to eat! But as he left the room, there was no smell of cooking food, no crackling fire, no clanging of pots or pans or such. There weren't even any footsteps.

The chief went down the stairs, tiptoeing for no apparent reason except it was quiet. But he needn't have bothered, because it was just as quiet downstairs as it was upstairs. There was nobody there.

'Maybe she went out for some exercise?' Stoick thought to himself. He made breakfast quickly, looking out the window, but there was no Vlahallarama in the clearing behind the house.

As he cooked, Stoick heard footsteps going down the stairs. He turned, and saw his son rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Good Morning, Dad." He yawned. Stoick grunted in reply, busy.

For few minutes, there was only the sound of the food cooking and some clanging noise as Hiccup put some plates and stuff on the table.

"Hiccup," Stoick said, and his son looked up from the table still half-asleep and mildly surprised his father was in a talking mood.

"Have you seen your mother this morning?" He asked.

"I just woke up, Dad." Was the reply he got. Which wasn't really a reply at all.

"Go check outside the house, will you?"

"Why?"

Stoick sighed. "Because I don't know where she is, son. Now go check."

Hiccup got up and did as he was asked, but Stoick didn't like the answer. No Valhallarama anywhere.

He ate as quickly as he could, ignoring his son when he asked where his mother was. He left the Haddock house in a hurry. But as Stoick checked all the places she could be (and some places where she couldn't), and the places where she wasn't started becoming more and more plentiful, Stoick realized something.

What had been strange this morning was that her side of the bed had been completely cold.

Now past worrying, Stoick Panicked. Before the sun reached its highest point, Stoick had already assembled a search party. High and low, they searched. All traps were checked just in case, and they got as close to the dragon mountains as they dared.

But no luck.

There wasn't a sign of her anywhere. She had vanished.

For days they kept on searching. But there was nothing.

For weeks, Stoick and Hiccup held on to the hope that she'd come back, as suddenly as she had gone. But there was nothing.

After months, a funeral was held, but on the boat, there was nothing.

At the funeral, Hiccup was crying. His father was dry-eyed behind him, which made it worse. As he watched the ship burn, he had an urge to swim after it, because he hadn't checked the boat, and what if she really was on it?

Hiccup looked as hard as he could, but the boat was as empty as it had been when they launched it. And he didn't know why, but that was… there was… it…

He broke away from his father and ran all the way home.

Later, Fishlegs stopped by.

"Maybe she's in a better place." He said, and Hiccup didn't know whether Fishlegs meant that his mother had been unhappy here and was living in a better place now, or whether she was…dead. Fishlegs left when he saw he'd made his friend feel worse, which he hadn't thought possible at all.

Snotlout stopped by too, with the Thorston Twins in tow.

"She was a nice aunt," Snotlout said. The Jorgenson family hadn't been close to them, really. Not any closer than any other family (Hiccup sometimes forgot they were related.). But it was a nice gesture.

"Maybe she wanted to marry someone else." Ruffnut suggested, tactful as ever. Ruffnut nodded, and they told Hiccup about how their father was now with this other lady and how she was nice and all, but she didn't make food the way their mom used to. Snotlout said that they were right; the new lady was a much better cook, which led to a fight, which wasn't really what Hiccup needed right then. He bid them goodbye, and they left.

And then came Astrid. Which surprised Hiccup to no end. Astrid was… Astrid. He didn't really see her with anyone, except maybe Snotlout sometimes, but even that was rare. And she certainly never talked to him more than was needed at any given time. Yet there she was, and all alone too.

"There's a club," She said. Hiccup was listening.

"There's a club for kids like us." She paused. "Kids who lost parents."

"I'm sorry you're a part of it."

Then she entered his room, totally without his permission, and sat on his windowsill. He closed the door and sat on the bed. Then he started crying. And she just sat there, silent. He told her how stupid it sounded whenever he heard people say his mother was dead, because he didn't know how to exist in a world without her.

Astrid stayed silent. And it was didn't make anything okay, but it was enough.

She was there, she understood, and that was enough.

A/N: I know, I totally stole the last part from Gray's Anatomy. I just thought it was one of the best moments of the show EVER. It was a perfect Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, I swear, especially when you put their characters into context.

So yeah, this chapter was a total rip-off, which I admit, but I'm not exactly writing fanfiction because of any brilliant originality, so expect stuff like this to crop up from time to time. Not very often, but yeah.

Also, I'm trying out a new style here, if anyone noticed. Is it too awkward?

I'm also reminding people that they should send in ideas and prompts which I will, of course, credit. I just need some ideas to get the juices flowing.

As always, thanks for reading and please send feedback!