Daneel may feel that his hovering isn't sensible or justified, but Ned is certainly glad of it, and the reassurances that come with. Power outage and anxieties aside, he has to smile. To have someone in his life, saying things like that to him, meaning them, is never going to stop being thrilling to him. He's spent so long calculating the dangers, knowing that on his side of the equation he could only rely on himself and himself alone. But now that's no longer true.

"I am sure of it," he says, leading the way back into the main room, to the fireplace. He's opened up the glass doors and arranged the wood as well as he can, but something tells him it isn't going to be as simple as just throwing a match in.

"Do we need, uh, paper or... sticks, or something like that? To get it started?" Daneel said he'd never started a fire before, but he still might know how, in theory. Ned really ought to spend more of his time in the library, picking up what survival skills he can. Ned had never really thought that the power might go out, that knowing how to start a fire might be a thing he ought to read up on.