This year's very first drabble was inspired by me when I woke up during the night feeling a little emotional.

Title: Thinking of Mom

Takes Place: Several months after the battle of the Red Death

Summary: 15-year-old Hiccup wakes up in the middle of the night to see Toothless looking so sad. With other options left out, there's only one thing left that Hiccup decides is bothering his best friend: Memories of his mother.

15-year-old Hiccup was just snoozing the night away when he was awakened by soft but audible groaning.

It took him a few seconds to realize that the groaning was coming from Toothless. He supposed the Night Fury was trying to wake him up so that they could go flying.

Letting out a groan himself, Hiccup sat up and lit the candle sitting on his bedside table.

"Come on, Toothless, it's too early," he said as he was doing this. "Why don't you go back to sleep for at a few more hours or at least when we start hearing our usual flock of Terrible Terrors singing on the rooftop."

Once the room was lit up by the golden candle, Hiccup saw something that surprised him.

Toothless was on the flat stone slab that he slept on across the room but he wasn't sitting up with an expectant, excited and slightly impatient expression as he always looked while he was waiting to go flying with him. Instead he was lying down with his chin resting on his paws and his lime-green eyes were soft and wide with sadness. He let out another sad, soft groan.

Hiccup had never seen his friend look so sad before. With a concerned look, Hiccup slid out of bed, approached the Night Fury and knelt down beside him.

"What's the matter, bud?" Hiccup asked, gently rubbing the top of the dragon's head. "Are you hungry? Thristy?"

Toothless glanced up at Hiccup for a few seconds before turning away again.

"No, I didn't think so. You always have food and water before going to sleep."

Pondering again, he said, "You're not sick are you?"

He worriedly lifted Toothless' chin up so that he was looking at him and he checked his eyes and even opened his mouth a little to find anything that might be wrong. So far, so good, nothing seemed to be wrong with him.

"Well, you're not sick, that's a good thing," Hiccup said, putting Toothless' chin down again. Then he shrugged. "Well, I don't know, bud. I just wish you could speak human and tell me why you're feeling so sad."

As if in reply, Toothless just stared at him sadly and groaned again.

Hiccup just stayed where he was wondering and wondering about what Toothless could possibly be thinking about that was making him so sad.

Then he remembered how sad his dad, Stoick looked every year on the anniversary of the day Valka (Hiccup's mother and Stoick's wife) had been snatched away by a mysterious dragon. Then suddenly things were now making sense to Hiccup.

Smiling sympathetically, Hiccup patted Toothless' head again and asked, "Toothless, are you thinking about someone you once knew? Your mom, maybe?"

In response, Toothless nodded and groaned again.

"That's what I thought," said Hiccup.

He continued to pat the darkly-colored dragon's head and wondered about what Toothless had been like as a baby. He tried to picture Toothless in a much smaller size and keeping close to a larger, female Night Fury.

"I'll bet she was an amazing mom," Hiccup said to his friend. "She must have labored extra hard to lay you and all your brothers and sisters, if you had any, as eggs. And protecting and warming you up until you were ready to hatch. When after you did hatch, she must have caught you all the fish you could eat until you learned how to do it yourself. And most importantly, I'll bet she was the one who taught you how to fly."

Toothless nodded again and again with each memory Hiccup said aloud before groaning again.

"Yeah, I know just how you feel," Hiccup said, feeling a little down himself. Then he had an idea. "Let me show you something."

Hiccup stood up and walked over to the chest at the foot of his bed where he kept some of his most prized possessions and opened it. Reaching in, he pulled out a round shield with a painting on it.

The painting was of his parents, Stoick and Valka, standing close together and they were both holding Hiccup as a baby. Stoick had explained to him that this painting had been done just three weeks after he had been born. It was also the only thing that showed Hiccup what his mother had looked like. She was a very beautiful woman with a kind smile and long hair braided in three ponytails.

The sound of footsteps drew Hiccup's gaze away from the painting. Toothless had stood up from the slab and was now approaching him and Hiccup was happy to see the curiosity in his eyes.

Holding the shield in his lap, Hiccup pointed to his baby self in the painting. "That's me as a baby, Toothless." Then he pointed to Stoick. "And that's my Dad. But you probably know that already." Finally, he pointed to Valka. "And that's my Mom."

Toothless sniffed at the painting making Hiccup chuckle.

Then he sighed wistfully. "I was only a few months old when I lost her."

Over the years he had tried so hard to remember the happy times he had spent with his mother and the night she was taken but those memories were vague. He only remembered three things from that terrible night of his mother's disappearance.

The first thing he remembered was a large pair of golden-yellow eyes hovering over him. The second thing was a tiny but sharp pain on his chin (he had a tiny scar on that chin for as long as he could remember). And the third and final thing was his parents' voices calling out each other's names. These three things had haunted him in his dreams ever since.

"Although I never knew her, Dad often talked about her, especially on the anniversary of her…disappearance," Hiccup continued. "He told me how kind and caring she was to all living things and how she always thought about others before herself. He said that I inherited her understanding and selflessness." Then he chuckled and said, "And he said that I also inherited her inability to stay put. And maybe I do have a bit of a habit of not staying still but sometimes I can't help myself."

Toothless let out a sound that resembled very much like a chuckle.

Hiccup's expression grew curious and sympathetic. "I wonder whatever happened to your mom. And your dad and your siblings…If you had any siblings."

Toothless looked down at the floor and purred sadly.

Patting the dragon's head again, Hiccup said, "Whatever happened to them, it must have been awful. I'll probably never know what happened to your mom and the rest of your family and maybe I'm better off not knowing."

Then he slid his fingers under Toothless' chin and lifted it up.

"But at least we had mothers to love us and take care of us while it lasted. And even though they're both far away now, they're kind of still with us in a way."

He placed one hand on his chest and another against Toothless' chest. "In our hearts."

Toothless looked down at Hiccup's hand against his chest in awe and curiosity. Then he looked up at his human friend and nodded understandingly.

Letting out a yawn, the Night Fury walked back towards his sleeping place. Walking in a circle, he released a breath of purple plasma warming up the stone. After dousing the tiny flames with his paws, Toothless laid back down and closed his eyes.

The Night Fury's soft but heavy breathing was enough to let Hiccup know that he had fallen back asleep.

"If you ever start thinking about your mom again, Toothless, think about all the good times you've spent with her, not the bad times," he softly advised.

Hiccup knew that he should also be going back to sleep as it was still dark outside. But he was so wide awake that he decided to do something else and he knew just what to do. Tucking the shield under his left arm, he grabbed the candle from his bedside table and carried both items to his desk.

After laying down a piece of parchment paper against the desk's flat wooden surface, he picked up a charcoal stick from one of his mugs and began to sketch something. As he drew, he occasionally looked at his family portrait for details. Finally, it wasn't long before his new drawing was finally finished. And it was one of his very best drawings as well.

On one side of the parchment he had drawn his mother Valka cradling him as a baby in her arms and on the other side of the parchment was a sketch of two Night Furies – a baby and a mother rubbing each other's noses.

Next drabble will be posted on Valentine's Day! And it's gonna be a Hiccstrid drabble too!