"You see, one loves the sunset when one is so sad." Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince.

...

The further south they drove, the thinner the snow became. The air still held a chill but it wasn't as biting as it had been in Washington and Idaho. They stopped for the night about every 200 miles or so. On the fourth day they were just about halfway to San Diego, staying in a motel in southwest Utah. Much of the rooms were full, so they had been saddled with a one-bed room, with little more than a small area of carpet to walk from the front door to the bathroom.

On the tiny nightstand, Luce stacked his books. He had dog-eared many pages of each one—The Little Prince and The New Children's Encyclopedia bore the heaviest evidence of his curiosity. The dictionary had very few marked pages, and Sex: A Book for Teens: An Uncensored Guide to Your Body, Sex, and Safety had no marks. He had still read it cover to cover in the car, however, and even asked some rather embarrassing questions of Elikai while they drove.

But now, in the motel room, they lay back to back on a stiff but spacious bed, with the extra pillows (there were a lot of pillows) kicked to the floor and the blankets curled around them, sharing both warmth and coolness between their bared feet and the fabric covering their skin.

Luce whispered, in the dark, "I feel a tug in my ribs."

Elikai rolled around to face him, lining his chest up against the notches of Luce's spine, and wrapped his arms around him. "What do you mean?" He breathed softly against Luce's shoulder. His shins brushed the backs of Luce's feet.

"I don't know."

Outside, a truck rumbled past, and Luce waited to continue until the room grew quiet once more.

"I feel like I need to find something very important to me."

He craned to look at Elikai. Twisted in his hold so they faced one another with foreheads touching. Elikai reached up and pushed his fingers through Luce's hair. He looked him in the eye. Spoke—"Do you know where this very important thing is?" He slotted one leg between Luce's thighs and draped his arm over his side.

Luce shook his head. "We're going in the right direction."

"That's good."

"I hope so."

...

"I don't like the smell of blood."

Elikai glanced over at Luce, who lolled in the passenger seat with heavy eyelids and a red nose. His forehead creased, and he asked Luce, "What are you talking about?" He looked back around at the road. Switched into the carpool lane while other cars streamed past in the burgeoning pink and yellow-white light of dawn.

Luce sniffled. He pulled a tissue from the packet on his lap and wiped his nose. "I remembered something last night while I was dreaming." He crumpled the tissue up between his scarred hands. "I don't like the smell of blood." He cleared his throat.

"And what does blood smell like?"

Luce set his eyes on Elikai, dark and glassy.

He licked his bottom lip—it was dry, and had split.

"Spicy."

He turned away to press his forehead against the cool glass of the window while Elikai continued to drive down the highway. The bright orange of his scarf made his skin twice as pale—more than it already was, with his unexpected cold. He shivered slightly. Elikai scanned the highway signs as he drove, searching for a place he might be able to stop off.

There—lodging in the next town.

"Do you want to stop at a hotel?"

Luce frowned and shook his head. "We've only been driving for a little bit. I want..." He looked down at his hands. "I want to go further south."

Elikai nodded. "San Diego is pretty close, now."

"No." Luce's mouth twisted. "I want to go farther."

Eyebrows drawing together, Eli watched Luce from the corner of his eye. "Lu," he murmured. "Are you alright?"

A semi rumbled by deafeningly. Rattled the windows. Luce waited for it to pass before speaking up once more. "I want to go south." He raised his hands to his face and rubbed his eyes with a broad, jaw-popping yawn. "I don't know what's south but I want to go there. In..." He looked thoughtful for a moment. Remembering a word. "Mexico. I want to go to Mexico."

Elikai found himself shocked into silence. He continued to drive. Finally, "Wha—Mexico?" He swerved sharply onto the exit ramp. "Mexico! Lu, you need a passport to go to Mexico—You don't even have an ID." He turned a corner as he slower, heading toward the nearest empty parking lot. He found a spot fairly quickly and put the Honda into park. He twisted to face Luce head-on. "I can't get you to Mexico, Lu."

Luce's face fell. "Oh."

"Why do you need to go to Mexico? Is this about the thing in your ribs?"

A small nod. Luce kept his eyes downturned and his face just out of sight. "I... need to go there." His shoulders hunched and he leaned forward. "I feel it getting hotter." He sniffed loudly. Reached for another tissue to scrub against his nose.

Now Elikai felt bad. He sighed.

"Listen, Lu, we can try to get you a passport, but I won't promise anything."

Luce brightened a little, and he let his eyes meet Elikai's. Elikai smiled at him.