Darkness

Date/Timing: 23 January 2007
Setting: around Berlin, Germany
.
Dee hovers outside the computer science building, patting his mittened hands together against the cold.
Hermann hobbles over, his „Hey.“ muffled by the scarf pulled up to his nose.
„Hey, Manny. Ready for some hot food?“
„Dear God yes.“
Dee laughs, links their arms, heads them over to the nearest bus stop.
They make the trip in silence, climb down in front of Lisa's family's restaurant, trump inside.
Dee helps him out of his coat, hangs them both on the rack, says—
„Gottlieblings! It's been /much too long.“
Dee grunts at the tight hug the small, round woman has applied to his middle. „We're sorry, Mrs Ilker. We've let ourselves get distracted.“
She tut-tuts, separates, and pats Dee's cheek. „It's fine, it's fine. We'll make up for it with a royal feed tonight! You—“ Points to Hermann. „—certainly need one.“
„There's no—“
„You don't—“
She bustles off, shouting in Turkish to the kitchen staff.
Dee sighs.
„You certainly have a way with Turkish women,“ drawls Hermann.
„Pheromones,“ shrugs Dee.
Hermann snorts, leads the way to a corner table, drops his rucksack under it, eases himself into the more protected seat.
Dee settles in the other chair. „Guess we don't need to look at the menu.“
„I do believe those decisions are being made for us tonight.“
„Which is just fine, because I have reading material for you.“ He slides over an envelope.
Hermann frowns. „You've crushed it.“
„It was that or forget it at Sabine's last night.“
„You're wearing yesterday's clothes?“
Dee runs a hand through his hair. „All of my stuff at her house was in the wash?“
Hermann treats him to a spectacular eye-roll, extracts the note.
- HERMANN!!!
DID YOU SEE IT????
OF /COURSE YOU SAW IT!!!
/EVERYONE SAW IT!!!
THAT WAS THE MOST AWESOME THING I'VE SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!!
(well aside from you, of course) -
Hermann's blood rushes to his face. 
- All the astrophysics lecturers canceled their classes so we could ooh and ahh at it. 
Which set off a discussion (and to be honest some wagering) on which of us would be first to discover a comet. I'm sorry to report I was judged a longshot in that race, BUT I /was unanimously voted 'most likely to find a black hole'.
...
I'm pretty sure that wasn't a joke.
♪♫♪♫♪♫ But I don't care! ♪♫♪♫♪♫
Because maybe, just /maybe that black hole will be an Einstein-Rosen bridge and we can see into another flipping /dimension! How awesome would that be??? I'll take a universe of teasing to be the first to see /that! -
Hermann breaks out in a smile which feels exceptionally dopey.
- Thankfully, though, most of the teasing so far this week has be aimed Aimee's way after she announced at the house meeting she's going to learn Bulgarian. When asked 'Why the fuck do you want to learn /another language?', she explained she wants 'to be fluent in European Union'. There was much face-palming.
But I'm not the eccentric housemate anymore! Even with my growing obsession with curves in the spacetime continuum.
Tell me the truth. Am I mental for wanting to spend my life looking for dark spots in between stars on the minuscule chance there might be a wormhole or something even /weirder in them?
I tried to explain it to Fen-fen and Trinity, but I may as well been speaking Finnish at them for all the sense they got out of it. Even most of the programme thinks I'm a little bonkers.
(Aimee is passable in Finnish, by the way: "Fifteen cases instead of three! Awesome!" Me and my black holes are /nothing compared to that.)
But it makes sense? I can go out to my backyard and see (at least a few) stars and that's fun and gorgeous and awesome. Looking in the dark spaces, though, takes tools and is more like work? I'm thinking it's a way to keep the stars fresh and worry-free, old friends we can hang out with after a long day at the office.
Is that crazy? -
Hermann sits back, rolls a twitch from his wings.
„Is everything alright?“
„He asked a bit of a difficult question.“
„Oh?“
„He wonders if it's odd he wants to study the darkness between the stars rather than the stars themselves.“
„Hmm ....“ Dee drums his fingers against the tablecloth. „Worried about what looking into the truest abyss will do to him?“
Hermann's heart twists. „I think ... I think that's exactly it.“ He rubs his chest, lowers his voice. „I want him to keep his sparkle.“
„From what you've told me and the letters you've let me read, if anyone can brighten that kind of darkness, it's him.“ Dee grins. „In fact, the abyss should probably be afraid /he'll change /it.“
Hermann shakes his head, smiles weakly.
„You've found yourself a very special young man.“
„I know that.“
„He has, too, you know.“
Hermann scoffs, turns back to the letter.
Category:Ficlet
Category:Berlin (setting)
Category:Hermann
Category:Hermann's POV
Category:Hermann has wings
Category:Hermann (ficlet)
Category:Dietrich
Category:Dietrich (ficlet)
Category:Edan
Category:Edan (ficlet)
Category:Conversations via snail mail
Category:Sabine (mention)
Category:Fenella (mention)
Category:Trinity (mention)
Category:Aimee (mention)
Category:Lisa (mention)
Category:Ficlets with images
2007 01 23
Category:Hermann loves stars
Category:Aimee loves language
Category:Celestial Mechanics