Liebestraum (Dreamnap)

Chapter 2: Latibule

There was a pleasant silence to assume in the universe. Blackness was everywhere, and millennia-old dead stars shone in the distance. They stretched out their rays as if they were trying to escape the inevitable death and yet, somehow, they had succeeded. After all, was something really dead when you still see it and the impact it made?

A clearing of a throat snapped the brown-haired out of his thoughts. He quickly whirled around and looked only a few feet away at Dream. He was standing at the edge of Saturn's rings. Just recently, Sapnap found himself in the universe at the Saturn rings. Of course, Saturn's rings were not made up of actual flat disks, but this was a dream, so who cared?

The rings glowed in the most brilliant colors and made a soft ringing sound when you walked over them, like glass made when you let it gently clink together.

Sapnap had rushed over the rings for a while, getting delusional at the thought of running around alone in the universe, but when he had met Dream, he had immediately felt much less lonely.

He was still something his head imagined, of course. But still, he seemed so natural to him, like a person of his own who seemed lonely. Because every time they looked at each other, there was always a spark of sadness in the eyes of the blond. He mentally moved away from him, trying to keep his distance.

Sapnap, meanwhile, wanted to make friends with Dream. He wanted to get to know him and philosophize with him about the curious dream world they were in. He wanted to admire the stars with him and jump over the edges of Saturn's ring and float in zero gravity. For with the blonde-haired at his side, this void that had previously seemed an omnivorous and oppressive black to him had now become nothing but a single weightless space of tranquility.

After they had introduced themselves to each other a while ago, a friendship had not yet developed as Sapnap had wished. It had gone quite differently.

"Is something wrong?" he asked Dream, glancing toward him, half in thought.

"Do you think there's some sort of earth out there somewhere?" at that moment Dream seemed momentarily unsettled.

The idea made Dream nervous and displeased in a strange way. As if he needed to know as if his life depended on it. But quickly the expression in his green eyes disappeared and he narrowed them. When he opened them again, they were impassive, serious, and looked back toward the earth.

The earth was beautiful, as Sapnap knew it from many pictures or movies. And when Sapnap followed Dream's gaze to Earth, the black universe turned into a colorful spectacle. Violet rays twitched around and blue stripes stretched across the black void of the universe until it was no longer possible for the eye to follow how far it stretched into the distance.

"Maybe? It will definitely be similar, but not an exact copy because nothing in this universe is the same or exactly identical. Everything and every little speck of dust are unique," Sapnap replied, wondering to himself about his words.

Dream in response let out a small laugh. He turned to the brown-haired man, his frame now filled with colorful rays at the universe and the glow of the beautiful earth behind him, framing him. In his face shone mischief. An unusual feeling rose in Sapnap's body, he blamed it on the other's gaze and definitely not on anything else that was developing inside him.

Sapnap didn't answer, holding his gaze and lifting his chin as a sort of nonverbal challenge. Dream strode closer to him, the floor beneath him clanking as his shoes met on the material of the ring.

He was suddenly reminded of how seriously Dream took these dreams. He accused Sapnap of chasing him in his dreams and mocked him for his actions.

The blonde had started a hunt out of discontent, and had asked Sapnap the same questions, to which he had always answered the same way. And so it began every time. And first Sapnap had found enjoyment in it.