"What do you plan to do now?" asked Amir as he approached the giant eagle and stroked its face.

"Go back to Hong Kong and get my life in order at once. But first I must go back for my things in Tehran, so I can pay you back," he completed at last.

Amir snorted with some annoyance at that last remark.

"Forget about payment. It's no longer necessary."

Xin looked at him in surprise.

"Friends don't get charged," Amir explained. "Especially not if they're as handsome as you."

"Are you serious?"

Amir nodded, smiling.

But before the man could say anything, the eagle stuck its beak under the man's jacket and then dropped a huge necklace of gold and precious stones on the ground that glittered indiscreetly in the moonlight.

"Wasn't that Sphendadates' necklace?" asked Xin in surprise before turning to scowl at Amir.

"Meddlesome bird," Amir scolded the bird; it let out an indignant squawk.

Amir picked up the necklace from the ground and put it back with him.

"On second thought, consider the necklace as payment for my being..."

But Xin interrupted him by taking it from his hands to hand him the dagger that Arash had become.

"Please promise me that you will take care of this dagger."

"The Daggerash?" exclaimed Amir in surprise.

"Daggerash?" asked Xin, holding back laughter.

"It's a dagger made with Arash, I mean, it's the Daggerash."

"I don't know if he would agree with the name," Xin commented.

"It's not like we can ask him either, is it?"

"I guess not," Xin admitted. "Will you look after her?"

"I think Arash would want you to have her..."

Xin shook his head softly.

"Arash wanted to protect his people, and more or less, that's what you do... and you don't do too badly," Xin confessed with a grin. "I want that, if Arash must be somewhere, it should be here, to keep defending you and yours from the white worms, or any other danger. In my house he would only be an ornament, but with you, he can continue to serve his purpose."

Amir smiled back with some sadness.

"So, you're definitely not staying, are you?"

Xin shook his head again.

"Dishi is waiting for me..."

This time, his bodyguard nodded with a wild look. Xin smiled at him and affectionately reached up to his face to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Well, time to go back," Xin said, pulling away and looking him in the face.

Amir suddenly fell silent and looked at Arash's mythical bird, Altair, then looked in every possible direction, and after a couple of seconds, he turned to look once more at Xin and Altair, who was fluffing his feathers with his beak:

"Ehm... You know how to fly that thing?"

「 心 」

When Xin returned to Hong Kong, the first thing he did was to arrive at his mother's house. She was shocked to see him standing in the doorway with his suitcases from the trip and his face a little sunburnt. She immediately threw herself on him, cried on his shoulder and wrapped him in an affectionate embrace.

After breakfast, they climbed the mountain together. He wanted nothing more than to walk hand in hand with her in the park, to laugh together like when he was a child. Putting aside all things magic, Xin told her everything he had experienced during his journey. After about an hour had passed, the boy spoke to his mother in a deep voice:

"I want us to visit dad's grave," he said suddenly.

She turned her eyes away from the city and looked at him for a second with shadowed eyes.

"Xin..." she murmured somewhat uneasily.

"I just want to say goodbye to him properly," he replied calmly. "That's all."

"Your father would like that very much," his mother sobbed, unable to contain her emotions. "He was very hard on you, and he never learned to open up like you and I did... But deep down he was just afraid of losing you, of not doing what was best for us. He loved you very much, even if he didn't know how to do it..."

The woman hid her gaze in sorrow, but Xin wouldn't let her, cupping her cheeks gently. At that moment, through the sheer magic he had already experienced, Xin saw something in her mother's eyes that he had never noticed before, but which seemed familiar... as if he had seen it before in a dream.

"I think so too," Xin assured her. "And I don't want to stop thinking about it..."

With one of his fingers, the boy wiped away one of his mother's tears as she kissed his hands.

"Still, it doesn't change the past, you know?"

"I know, my boy, and I'll never forgive myself for not being a better mother every chance I got," she replied, clinging to her son's wrists. "Do you think... you can forgive me? Someday?"

Xin felt the intensity of her gaze and once again, those eyes seemed familiar. They were kind, yet strong, and full of love. The boy could no longer hold back the tears, and this time it was she who had to hug him tightly to calm the tremors in his body from crying.

"There is nothing to forgive," he replied contentedly. "By the way, after we visit dad's grave, I'd like to introduce you to someone..."

"Who?" she asked distractedly before fixing her gaze back on her son.

The smile on her lips was mirrored in her gaze.

"My boyfriend," Xin said before holding his breath and clasping his hands on his legs.

For a moment, she said nothing. She just looked at him with a face full of surprise. There was no anger, no complaint or reproach, only surprise. Although she remained silent for another couple of seconds, her hands reached for her son's, still clenched into tight fists, until their fingers intertwined.

"I'd love to meet your boyfriend," she said before smiling. "I just hope he wants to come eat with you at our house."

His mother stroked his cheek affectionately and Xin hugged her, trying not to cry, even if it was from happiness.

"I'm sure he'll love the idea."

「 心 」

After taking a deep breath and shaking his body a little to give himself courage, Xin knocked on the door.

"Just a moment," he heard Dishi's voice answer from the other side. Xin couldn't help but feel his pulse quicken as a goofy grin tugged at his lips.

Within seconds, Xin heard someone working the locks on the key on the other side until finally the door opened, and Dishi's eyes connected with his own.

"Xin!" exclaimed Dishi in surprise, unable to believe his eyes.

"Hello," the boy greeted him with his heart in his throat and his body struggling to throw itself at the boy in front of him.

Seeing that Dishi didn't react, he had to insist.

"May I come in?"

Dishi stepped aside to let Xin pass as he tried to organise a bit of the mess of newspapers and laundry that was everywhere.

"I didn't know you were already in Hong Kong. Had I known you were coming, I would have cleaned up a bit earlier," he tried to apologise before turning to look back at Xin. "When did you get back?"

"A little while ago," Xin replied. "Are your parents around?"

Dishi just shook his head.

"They went with Ju to the village to visit my grandparents for the holidays."

Knowing they were alone, Xin approached Dishi without fear or self-consciousness of any kind.

"Forgive me for not letting you know sooner, but I was visiting with my mother at my dad's grave," he said as he brushed the other boy's tousled hair. "I wanted it to be a surprise."

"You disappeared for a month, Xin..."

Dishi's comment was a disguised complaint, otherwise justified.

"I'm sorry I worried you," Xin said as he hid his face in Dishi's chest and wrapped his arms around him.

Slowly, Dishi returned the hug.

"I was scared to death, and I didn't know who to call. I...!" Dishi hesitated for a moment, but then kept talking. "I even called your house, but your mum didn't know anything either, and I...!"

Suddenly, Dishi's words were interrupted by Xin's lips, who had just stolen a fleeting kiss from him. They both forgot about their problems for the fleeting time the kiss lasted. When it was over, very carefully, Dishi caressed Xin's face, noticing the tan on his skin for the first time.

"How's Iran?" he asked. "Feeling better now?"

"Yes."

"And?" insisted Dishi wanting to know more.

"Thanks to a couple of friends I met through... the internet, I was able to overcome the grudge I felt towards my father, and that gave me a lot of peace," Xin said sincerely.

Dishi smiled in surprise.

"Really? Well from this moment on I'm warning you that the next time you need to take a trip of introspection wherever you go on the planet, I'll hide in your suitcase to go with you," he said, squeezing Xin tightly in his arms and lifting him into the air. "I don't intend to let you part from me like that ever again."

"In fact," Xin said once the laughter had stopped him talking and Dishi had stopped hugging him, "I wanted to invite you on a journey... one way, no way back..."

"I beg your pardon?"

Xin pulled some papers out of his inside jacket pocket.

"It's two tickets to Australia," Xin said as a blush painted his face red. "One has my name on it and the other... has yours on it. I seem to remember it was Australia where you wanted us to go. But if it wasn't Australia, we can always change them..."

But another kiss, this time from Dishi, pushed the words into Xin's mouth. When their lips parted, they were both gasping for air, until Xin's breathing became a whisper.

"I love you," he said for the first time as he looked into Dishi's eyes and Dishi held his gaze.

Again he took Dishi's face in his hands so that their eyes met again and when he could see his reflection in the other's gaze, he repeated what he had just said:

"I love you."

"I love you too," Dishi replied, overwhelmed by his boyfriend's boldness.

"So... You want to run away with me?"

"Of course."

"To Australia?"

"Anywhere," Dishi nodded.

Dishi placed his lips on Xin's tenderly. Finally, a tear escaped his eyes.

"No fears," affirmed Xin who was also crying.

Dishi looked into his eyes for a solemn moment that seemed to last for ages, though it was only seconds.

"No fears?"

He asked at last, and their lips met again:

"Never again..."