Sometimes when the night was colder but Xiao Xin still wanted to sleep outside they would make a fire. Xiao Xin seemed to like watching the fire just as much as he liked watching the stars. "A part of your name means fire," he said one time as he watched the flames dance in the darkness.

"That's right," Huo Linghun said. He remembered when he told Xiao Xin that the stars were distant balls of fire, and Xiao Xin had compared him to them. He'd said he was not like the stars. He wondered if he was like fire or not.

Xiao Xin answered his unasked question a moment later. "You are like fire," he said.

"Am I?"

"Fire is beautiful," Xiao Xin said. "You are beautiful." He said it so matter-of-factly.

Huo Linghun wondered how much of his blush was visible in the firelight. "If I am like fire, then you are like air," he replied.

"Air?" Xiao Xin asked curiously.

"Without air there is no fire," Huo Linghun explained. He hugged Xiao Xin close; "If I am beautiful it's because I can burn brightly thanks to the air that surrounds me."