A fresh wind announces the night.

"How are you doing, Sandro? Going to fulfil your promise?"

"A promise is a promise. Any stars seen yet?"

"Enough. And you don't have to suffer in the cold there all alone. I have a blanket."

"Profiteer." I crawl next to him. "What's in the stars?"

"Ursa Major and Minor, Cassiopeia, Virgin, Venus."

"Really, huh!" I scoff.

"What?"

"You mentioning Venus. You know, the goddess of love."

"That's what you made of it."

"Yeah, well." I shrug. "Tell me something."

"The stars are the most beautiful thing you can imagine. I could look at them all night long. Try to imagine: such a vast, dark dome, like ... like a rough woollen jumper, with many dots of light in it. And then you have to realize that some of those dots of light are light years away from us or don't even exist anymore. Isn't that astonishing? And here the starry sky is even more impressive, because there's much less light - and maybe also air pollution."

"Does that matter?"

"The darker your environment, the more stars you can see and fine dust blurs your sight. But I find the whole space magnificent. The earth seen from outer space, that's stunning. A blue and green ball, our beautiful blue planet."

"You vain creature," I smirk.

"How so?"

"Weren't you blue?"

"I mentioned green too." There we go again. Next, he'll think I'm fishing for compliments. "But if you see that small boll, you realize how puny we are in that immeasurable universe, how much life walks around on that little boll, what a colourful planet we are."

"You're even getting lyrical about it."

"Does it bother you?"

"No, I like listening to you. I can't look at the stars, so I'll have to listen to the stars." I hum softly: 'Amid stars, the moon is rising towards a wreath of clouds'.

***

I'm captured in a whirl with the colour of too spicy chilli pepper. It drags me down and grains of darkness bury me. Needles prick me at every place possible. I seem enveloped by a magnificent crown of rays, but in a cold and harsh colour, as aggressive as possible. I squirm, but it makes the needles pierce my skin more deeply. Not one cell of my body seems to be free of pain. I think I'm bleeding to death. Then something big zooms towards me. It penetrates my mouth and nose, my eyes and ears, the pores of my skin and overpowers me with venomous tentacles. The only thing I still notice is that the monster is crushing me and I'm choking.

***

"Aaah!" The shriek escapes me before I can halt it. Why didn't I see it coming? It's been like this for years. Every time the same nightmare and I always wake up with a shriek.

"Sandro? Everything all right? What's the matter?"

"Nothing."

"No, what's the matter? Why did you scream?"

"Nothing, I said. Go back to sleep. It was a silly joke of mine. I'm sorry I woke you up."

"No, I don't believe you. Even in this light, I can see you're white as a sheet and your forehead is wet from sweating."

"I had a nightmare. I ..."

"Wait." I hear a zipper. His sleeping bag? Then I feel him zipping mine open as well. He crawls close to me and takes me in his arms, rubs my back. He's warm. I didn't know I was that cold.

"Andreas ..."

"Ssh. Don't be afraid. I'm with you. Deep breaths. Relax."

"Andreas ..." He kisses me. On my lips. I freeze. I could push him away, but ... Actually, I'm quite enjoying this. He doesn't impose. My left hand glides to his shoulder.

In the end, I'm still the one to break off the kiss. "Andreas, I ... Have you ever kissed before?" He starts to laugh. "Why are you laughing? I can't know that, can I? I've never kissed."

"I'm sorry. But from all things you could have asked or said ... I'd expected everything, except this. No, I'm not that kind of person that stills his sexual needs with a random person because he can't get someone else. You've been the only one I want to kiss since puberty."

"Then there are two blind people in this tent."

"How so?"

"Love makes blind, doesn't it?"

"Oh God, I'm so in love with you!" I want to ask since when he believes in God, but he kisses me again, with more force and vigour than before. I feel and put my hand on his cheek. Some stubble pricks. I crawl even closer to him. I don't know how this works, but I try to actively participate in the kiss and not just let him kiss me passively. And what does it matter what I do? It's nice and he finds it nice too because he squeezes my shoulder softly.

This time I prolong the kiss till we're both out of breath. "Andreas, I ... I don't know what you're awakening in me, but ... I enjoyed this, but I think I still don't want a relationship."

"Don't you worry about that now. You have no idea how happy I am right now. Go to sleep. Maybe you'll dream about me now."

I smile. "Sweet dreams, my little egoist."

***

The bell rings. "Come in! The door is open!"

"Hey, Sandro." Andreas puts his hand on my shoulder for a moment.

"Glad you've come. I have something for you."

"Something for me? It's not a portrait of me, is it?"

"Depends on how you interpret it, because it is a painting. Your descriptions of green and blue and the earth inspired me. It's on the table."

"It's marvellous, although our blue planet is very green in this version. You sure you didn't just paint yourself?" He laughs.

"I painted love, what you mean to me. Us."

"And we are a whole world, in ocean blue and leafy green."