Night came fast, masking the bright August sunshine with countless tiny stars pinned on the vast dark sky. Ocean and Jesse were assigned to gather any dry wood sticks they could find and make a nice cosy campfire. The siblings soon joined them with snacks and some of their Dziadziu's not so secret stash of wine. Songs were sung and games were played but before long the couple disconnected to their own private corner of gentle caresses.

Takehiko was unsurprisingly not amused. He glided away with a bottle half-full of Pinot Noir in his hands and a warm blanket wrapped around his shoulders and headed towards the woods. He kept walking through the moonlit forest and sipping from the bottle. He craned his neck to gaze at the stars, softly warbling a leftover song that had stuck in his head. At some point along the way, he decided to slump against a tree. It was moist and spiky, but somehow it felt relaxing. He slid down, closed his eyes and let his head fall gently on the trunk. He exhaled sharply. He was only on his second (approximately) glass of wine, but his head was already wrapped in a dizzy spiral.

However, the teen's lone hideout was quickly discovered. He heard footsteps against the crunchy leaves, weak branches breaking under a set of heels. For a minute he almost lost his temper and nearly freaked out.

"There you are," Ocean's husky voice was heard, making Takehiko give out a sigh of relief. "You left me all alone with them lovebirds!"

"I was bored," Takehiko said with a shrug. He felt Ocean's body next to him. It was still warm from the campfire. The lighter's wheel turning and rubbing against the flint echoed in the dead silence of the forest. The smell of its flame burning the cigarette tip entered Takehiko's nostrils. He opened his eyes. Ocean, yet again, was smoking. The man's breath formed a big white cloud and surrounded them like fog. Takehiko reached over and snatched the cigarette pack out of Ocean's hand.

"Hey!" Ocean protested.

"Relax, I'm just borrowing one."

"There's no point in saying borrowing if you're going to smoke it."

"Then I'm stealing it," Takehiko said and softly bit the dark end of the cigarette. He took the lighter from Ocean's fingers and lit it. "You're not gonna tell, are you?"

"I won't if you don't."

Takehiko smiled and inhaled deeply. He felt his lungs firing up with the unwelcome toxic guest. He coughed.

"First time?" Ocean asked with a chuckle.

"Hardly. It's been a long time though."

"Long time? Were you smoking as a toddler?"

Takehiko laughed and fell silent, tightening the blanket covering him. This midsummer's night was way colder than he was expecting it to be. He looked over at the Ocean's long-sleeved shirt and jeans with jealousy. Even though he did a good job keeping his mocking comments about Ocean's choice of clothes in such a warm day, at that moment he wished he had done the same. Ocean seemed quite a curious person in Takehiko's eyes. The moon was reflecting on his glasses and gently illuminating his features. He was full of freckles, his eyes were wrinkling at the outer corners making him look old and tired, even though he was only twenty-three. There was something odd about him, a hidden softness behind the cold facade.

"What are you thinking?" Takehiko asked.

"About how your sister bribed me into babysitting yer face."

The boy raised an eyebrow. "Did she now?"

"Sure she did. Don't you find it strange she invited me and her boyfriend? It's all part of her plan, I'm telling ya. Not like I don't have better things to do than being here with ye..."

"You shouldn't have come, then," Takehiko said as he tossed the cigarette bum on the ground and put it out with the tip of his worn-out red Chuck.

Ocean grabbed the bottle from Takehiko's hand, placed it on his lips, cocked his head backwards and drunk. He had almost dried it out before he put it back down to catch his breath.

"Wine's good at least."

Takehiko said nothing in reply. He felt embarrassed, his cheeks were burning scarlet. Not only his sister had sabotaged their week together but he had also dragged along an innocent bystander. He wanted to deeply apologise but instead, he let his eyes grow teary. Once again his company was nothing but unwanted. Once again he deserved to be alone.

"D'y'like 'em stars?" Ocean said, slightly slurring his words.

"Do I what?"

"The stars," Ocean slowly repeated, "do you like them?"

Takehiko shrugged. "They're a'ight, I suppose."

Ocean lit yet another cigarette and let it burn between his fingers. "Have you ever thought about leaving this planet and take a tour around the galaxies?"

"That's not possible."

"What if it was?"

Takehiko gawked at Ocean with great curiosity. He knew they were both drunk but somehow, Ocean's question seemed sober, sincere. The man's icy gaze had thawed just enough to make Takehiko feel welcome again. He went on with caution, "I'd probably take the next scheduled shuttle."

Ocean laughed. "Me too. And what if," he continued, "you got to arrive at a certain planet, that had people on?"

"People?" Takehiko scoffed. "Like those green slimy creatures with the big black eyes they show in films?"

Entertain by the received enthusiasm, Ocean snickered and smiled. "Perhaps. Or they could be like us. There could even exist in an ecosystem exactly like ours. Don't you think it's pretty selfish and lonely to consider ourselves the only intelligent species in the whole universe? I think it would be nice to have friends from other planets."

"Does your mind always turn into a sci-fi mush when you're drunk?" said Takehiko and chuckled. "It would extremely be difficult to meet them. It is now with people from different cities, let alone from different planets!"

"I'd grab a space-time string," Ocean said, raised his arm up high aiming the moon and curled his fingers, as if he was clasping an invisible thread above his head, "and I'd pull it, and I'd be there in a mere second. Or even less. In a blink of an eye."

"That'd be so cool."

"Y'know what's cooler?" In the absence of an answer, Ocean slowly moved his eyes to meet Takehiko's. An eager look greeted him. He smiled. "The coolest thing of all is how terrifyingly high are the chances of those things actually happening. Could you imagine one day waking up and seeing on the telly news about it? I can't even begin to comprehend how extremely possible it is that as we're watching, with our bare eyes, civilisations of the universe are being born and die. And we, who are nothing but insignificant humans on an insignificant planet of the tiniest solar system imaginable, think of them as just little dots shining in the night. Like how a... friend of mine used to think of them. Dots 'God' gave us to connect and make pretty images with our minds. To entertain ourselves in the night. That's what he used to say."

Takehiko tried to suppress a chuckle with the idea. "Pretty artsy your friend, isn't he?"

"He was."

"You don't hang out anymore? That sounds inevitable," said Takehiko and nodded in agreement with himself. "He must have realised what scum you are."

"I am not!" said Ocean and gently punched the boy laughing. "You may think so differently, but I'm a very good friend to have."

"Then why he's not friends with you any more?"

"Because he... he had to leave. Far away."

"You couldn't stay in touch with each other?"

Ocean paused for a moment. He ran his fingers through his hair and breathed out heavily. "No. That was... impossible."

"Do you miss him?"

"At times... a lot. When you spend too much time with someone, it's bound to happen when you get separated. Most things remind you of them. Your brain will always bring up pictures of the past and won't let you get over it. But that's... alright. Life still goes on."

Ocean then kept on talking, about stars and fantasies, mixing up all his knowledge from sci-fi films and books, blending them all together and making up his own, creating a utopia of worlds colliding and getting well together, unified in a big, wild dream. He kept pointing at the sky, sharing secrets he'd once discovered in forgotten pages filled with dust. And Takehiko kept listening with attentive ears and an open heart. For the first time in a long while, he had managed to find someone he could spend hours talking to. And he did. And the clock kept ticking. But Takehiko wished it wouldn't. The moon kept moving, but it shouldn't. The sun's threat was more imminent moment by the moment. For stars need darkness to shine. And the brightest star of them all was right in front of him. And it felt kind of warm.