Hiccup opened his door and leant his shield against the wall. If they used the map of the island they could cross off the areas they had searched. On the way to his desk, Hiccup stopped dead.

There she was - asleep on his desk with her head resting in her arms. A wave of immense relief coursed through him. Looking closer, he noticed there was a leaf stuck in her braid. Despite his exhaustion and his earlier worry, he found himself smiling. Just in time, he saw that Toothless was about to nudge her with his nose and quickly signed to his friend not to. Toothless gave him a look but obeyed.

Hiccup watched him heat up his rock and then curl up on top of it. Without any second thought, he went to her and carefully lifted her up in his arms. She stirred and opened her eyes halfway.

"Hiccup?" she whispered.

"Yeah, it's me," he answered softly.

"I'm really sorry for-" her sentence was cut short by a yawn.

"Shh. Go back to sleep, Astrid," she merely nodded and closed her eyes again.

Hiccup laid her down on his bed. The tricky thing was that she had somehow gotten hold of his hand and he could do very little against her strong grip. Well, that's what he would tell her anyway. The truth was that he could have untangled their hands easily but he really didn't want to. So he climbed into bed next to her. After a few moments of listening to her peaceful breathing, Hiccup closed his eyes and let sleep consume him.