AN: Finals Week has arrived and to celebrate my end to homework, I decided to update. Yay!

Hiccup poured over the journal for hours. He didn't sleep, he just translated what he read, first into Norweigan, and then into English (whether or not this was Hiccup's personal obsession, this was also the official job he was given as an intern on this excavation...even if the English translation was just for fun). Each turn of the page was equal parts terrifying and exciting, and even though Hiccup was still so confused, he had been right to calm himself down - Hiccup III filled in a few blanks.

Dragon's Edge was an island northeast of Berk, where the Dragon Riders had migrated to for a short time while mapping beyond the archipelago on some mission that wasn't detailed...and probably to get a little independence from their parents. He had been 18 at the time, so even though he didn't explicitly say it in his journal, Hiccup suspected that was a big part of it. Searching for himself. Finding himself.

He kept those speculations to himself, and out of the translations.

The Dragon Eye was a device that, when exposed to the different fires of dragons, held information about different species. Viggo was the leader of the Dragon Hunters who wanted to use the Dragon Eye to hunt down the different species of dragons and learn the secrets to killing them...or exploiting them. Hiccup had thrown it into the volcano on Dragon's Edge to keep the hunters from getting it. It was even more of a clusterfuck than that first entry implied.

There were still a lot of missing pieces, but by the time Hiccup finished the two translations, he wasn't as upset about the destroyed journals. There was so much information about dragons Hiccup had never even heard of scribbled into the margins of the journal, references to islands no one had spoken of before, allies he didn't know about... And most exciting of all, Hiccup's map. During his stay on Dragon's Edge, he had been creating a chart of the Archipelago and the outlying islands beyond it, complete with dragons native to them. According to the journal, it was one of the few things that survived Hiccup's destruction of his hut because he always carried it with him. That meant...there was a chance it was still out there. Jack was right...he found what he was looking for, and it was exactly what he wanted.

Satisfied, but running on no sleep, Hiccup saved his works and put the book away in a chest for safe-keeping before bundling up to head back out to the battlefield. He was far too excited to get any rest...and by now, the rest of the archaeologists were out there already, doing their work. Hiccup just wanted to join them.

"And get this... Heather? From the first journal? She was Dagur's little sister. And at some point, Hiccup and Dagur actually became friends."

"Dude. Hiccup hated Dagur." Jack was grinning as he listened to his boyfriend gush over his find the month before. Hiccup was so adorable when he got like this, and Jack loved hearing about his family history, about dragons, about the things Hiccup was learning on his dig. He pulled the pillow he was hugging closer to his chest and closed his eyes. He had headphones in so he wouldn't smother the phone while he was laying down, pretending his pillow was his boyfriend so it could feel like he was right there. "This is an incredible thing to find... I'm happy for you, Hic."

"Heh. Thanks, Jack."

Jack had missed Hiccup so much over the past two months. He'd been so worried, especially the first time three weeks in, when he was staying in a hotel and told Jack the details of the battlefield. Jack had been extremely anxious knowing Hiccup was out there, surrounded by icy ocean, on a frozen rock. He knew what the cold exposure did to people without Hiccup telling him the state of mummification of the bodies. He knew, even if Hiccup hadn't considered it, what happened to a person when they fell into freezing water, even if they kept their head above the water and didn't reflexively gasp and drown themselves. For the past month, while Hiccup was working with no way to contact him, Jack had been scaring himself shitless with horror stories of How Many Ways Hiccup Could Die In The Cold.

Hell, given the way Hiccup described the site, he could just accidentally step on a bear trap. Dragon trap. Whatever-fucking-kind-of-trap. There were weapons all over the place, okay?

He just wanted Hiccup to come home. He wanted to see him in person, make sure he was okay.

"Jack?"

"When are you coming home?"

Hiccup laughed that sweet, amused laugh that Jack loved so much, making his heart flutter. "You know I'll be back at the end of September."

"But it's July. I can't take this anymore, Hiccup. I'm so scared you'll get hurt out there. You've already fallen down! I know you're not alone out there but you can still be hurt! I didn't think about how scared I'd be-"

"Jack, Jack..." Hiccup interrupted him. "Jack...it's okay. I'm okay. We're spending shifts out in the cold, we're bundled up appropriately, and my main job is translating any documents we find on the ships. So far, besides the journal, we've found six charts and some disturbingly steamy journal entries from one of the trappers about himself and a woman he liked. I've spent a lot of time inside the camp just...translating. And the cut on my chin isn't even that bad, it's only going to leave a tiny scar."

...

"WHAT?!" Jack screeched, sitting up in bed, nearly ripping his headphones off in the process. He picked up his phone. "You got a scar out there? Hiccup, what the hell?!"

Once again, Hiccup tried to use that damn reassuring tone on him. "Jack... I told you I fell and that's how I found the journal! I landed on my face. I'm fine, Jack. You're being very overprotective..."

"Hiccup..." Jack sighed, flopping back down on his bed. He curled around the pillow again, holding it tightly. "Of course I'm being overprotective... God, you're gonna give me a heart attack, you know that? I'm 23, I'm too young to have a heart attack! I'm so scared that something's going to happen to you. I'm scared and I love you and I can't handle it if something goes wrong out there and I need you to be careful."

"Wh-...you...what?"

And then Jack felt his world freeze, because he realized what he'd just said. Something that he hadn't said before. Something neither of them had said...something that Jack wanted to tell Hiccup face to face, not over the phone.

"Jack...?" Hiccup asked when Jack didn't answer him right away.

"I... Hiccup... I love you."

Silence. Agonizing silence.

And then a breath.

And then a laugh.

"Jack... I love you, too."