"Lass die Liebe regieren" - Madsen
🎵 Weil purer Hass auf Dauer traurig macht / Und das Leben viel mehr zu bieten hat / Weil wir mit uns kämpfen / Un weil wir uns brauchen 🎵
The unknown man with the piercing yellow eyes began to shove his way, rather forcefully, through the large crowd of people towards me. With every step he took, he drew nearer, and my heart began to speed up in my puny chest.
It's ridiculous, I tried to tell myself. There was no way this hunk of a man was coming all the way towards me. I mean, I was on the bench which was situation close to the washroom; therefore, the poor guy probably really had to go! We've all been there before. And even if he was coming towards me, what the hell could he possibly want? I didn't owe him money!
Still, it was impossible to ignore the drive and motivation that was clearly illustrated in his eyes, which refused to deviate away from me, as if he were afraid that if he looked away for a mere millisecond, I'd disappear.
He towered over everyone else in the crowd of passengers, but the nearer he got, the more panicked I began to feel. It's stupid, really. I mean, he's totally not coming towards me specifically— wait, no. He is.
Damn it!
"Hey, ready to go to the beach?" I thankfully heard Dominik ask as he exited the washroom and quickly made his way up to me.
My face must've been pale with nerves because the teenage boy looked down at me confused.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
I glanced over his broad shoulder, seeing that the yellow eyed man had frozen in his tracks. His previous grin had evaporated from his handsome face, and for the first time since I'd laid eyes on him, his gaze shifted away from me towards Dominik. The man seemed to narrow his gaze at the teen, shooting lasers of utter hatred and disgust into his back. Shoot, even his upper lip seemed to curl upwards, resembling a snarl.
Um, what is going on here on this day?
"N-nothing," I stammered, getting off the bench while keeping a cautious eye on the mysterious guy who still stood dead in the crowd, his gaze affixed to me. The smart thing to do would be to tell Dominik that some creeper was staring at us; however, given the guy's stature and the fact that he looked like two Dominiks in one, I didn't have too much faith in my teenage companion. I suppose if Dominik tried to fight him, I could run off while Dominik got his ass kicked?
Dominik didn't seem to believe me, and he narrowed his yellow eyes down at me, scanning my supposedly frightened features. His angry face softened as he took in my expression, and he bit down on his lower lip. "Hey," he said, holding out his pinkie towards me, "I won't ever let anything bad happen to you, I promise."
I stared at his pinkie, considering what he meant. I really hope that he's telling the truth because my nerves were out of the roof! Quickly, I took his pinkie in mine.
Dominik gave my finger a squeeze before wrapping a secure arm around my waist, pulling me in so close to him that there was not even a centimeter of air between us.
In response, the unknown dude's grimace grew and he looked like he'd lunge at us at any second.
I'm sure it was nothing, it had to be. No, I'm positive that it's nothing. My frazzled brain is just working in overtime due to the stress of getting on the wrong train and from Dad's panicked attitude over the phone. That's it.
I forced myself to look forward as Dominik led us away from the train station, and down a cobblestone road. One of the cool things about Europe is that its significantly older than North America, town-wise. Hence, a lot of the places are a lot more historic and have more interesting architecture. Plus, they're a lot more walkable. That being said, I could see the large expanse of the ocean out over the town of Nordwestmecklenburg, and it looked like it would indeed be quite the trek.
And cobblestone is not too comfortable to walk on, just saying.
Dominik must be psychic, because he nodded towards a little stand that was positioned directly outside the train station.
A bleach white pop-up tent was situated over a few bicycles that were each parked next to a metallic stand, which matched the futuristic white color of the tent. On each stand was a little computer screen with "RENT ME!" on it underneath the same phrase in German. Each bike was the same: white body with a long seat, and a little bell to ring that was on the handlebars.
"Here, let's get some bikes," Dominik suggested, perking up a little bit. "We can get to the beach much faster."
Uh-oh.
My face growing warm, I tried to slow my pace down, but the way Dominik had his arm wrapped around me prevented it. "Um, are you sure?" I asked. "I mean, I don't have any money."
Dominik snorted, rolling his yellow eyes. "I got you," he huffed, his tone sounding like it should've been implied. I hope that he doesn't plan on me paying him back. I mean, he's already bought my train ticket too; and I don't have a job! I guess he can just send the bill to my credit.
I peeked over my shoulder, relieved that I couldn't see the myserteous man anymore; but my nerves were still sky high as we approached the rent-a-bike stand.
Dominik began to punch away at one of the screens next to the bikes with his free hand, picking the German flag so that the prompts were all in German, thus preventing me from completely understanding what they were saying. However, number symbols are the same in most languages, hence, when I saw Dominik hit one the arrows to change "1" to "2", I knew that I had to speak up. Damn it.
"Hey, Dominik?" I blushed, tugging on his tight t-shirt a little.
"Ja?" he asked, still messing with the machine, yet he tightened the arm that was around me to indicate that he was paying attention.
My face was so red now that it felt like I'd burst into flames at any second. After taking a quick look around to make sure that nobody was close enough to hear me, I leaned in closer to the guy and whispered, "I, uh, I don't know how to ride a bike..."
He's going to laugh at me, I know it.
He's going to laugh at the fact that I'm nine and that I've never learned how to ride a bike, which is hella humiliating for a preteen boy. And then he's totally going to ditch me here in Nordwestmecklenburg, return my train ticket, and force me to find my own way all the back to Bedburg by myself. I just know it! My life is over! Nothing else in the world matters right now— not war, not famine, not any sort of international crisis. For real, the UN is going to stop their proceedings just so that they can laugh at the headline that will, no doubt, show up on DW: MAXIMILIAN CRISTOBAL ESTRADA, AGE 9, CANNOT RIDE A BIKE... BUT AT LEAST HE CAN DO THE SPLITS (I try to add a little positivity in everything)!
Without even making a face or looking down at me, Dominik went back to the previous screen, changing the "2" back to a "1".
"Oh," he shrugged, as if I'd just told him the weather and not a potentially life-ruining fact, "we'll share then."
Oh. Okay, that doesn't sound too bad.
Looking at the bikes, the seats seemed like they were long enough to fit the both of us on them. Plus, it would be a lot faster to reach the beach on a bike than on foot, so I suppose that it was a pretty good idea. Dominik finished punching in information onto the screen before he took out his wallet, placing his debit card onto the screen until a little robotic chime rang out. Next, there was a click as one of the bikes titled slightly, indicating that it had been unlocked.
He grabbed the bike by the handlebars and pulled it closer to us. Momentarily, Dominik let go of me, swinging his leg over the bike and sitting down on the long seat, scooting up closer to the front of it.
"Sit behind me," he said, patting the tiny space that was left behind his large bulk.
I've seen a lot of TV shows where people share a bicycle as they ride around town... however, it should be pointed out that said people tended to be a couple. Like, a romantic couple! Images of lovey-dovey teens filtered into my head, usually with the guy steering the bike and the girl lovingly clasping her arms around his waist. Wait, why do I have to have the girl position?! Eh, well I guess I can't be in front since I can't ride a bike.
Not wanting to cause a scene, I grabbed a tight hold of Dominik's t-shirt in my fist to steady myself as I swung my little leg over the tall bike. It was a little harder for me than Dominik due to our drastic height difference, but I finally managed to climb my way up onto the big bike. Immediately, I wrapped both of my tiny arms around Dominik's big waist, not able to even have my hands touch each other around his massive bod. I tried to squeeze onto him as best as I could, afraid that I'd fly off the bike the second he started to pedal— and if we rode on the road, I'd totally be creamed by whatever car trailed behind us!
"You better not let me fall," I mumbled, pressing my body as close to Dominik's as possible. It wound up looking like I was a human version of my rabbit backpack, and the teenager was wearing me.
Instead of a snarky response, like I was expecting, Dominik measuredly patted my hands with one of his.
"I won't let you go, Hase," he reassured me. "I promise."
That's not really what I said, but okay. Still, I tightened my grip as much as I could around Dominik as he started to pedal off down the road.
The cold, salty ocean breeze blew by us as Dominik pedaled towards the beach. He weaved through the town at an incredibly fast speed, and I couldn't help but force my arms to become a vise grip around his torso, squeezing him with all of my might. We were so close that my head even rested against his broad back. It was warm and the more we traveled, the louder his heartbeat grew, which seemed to also grow in strength the tighter I held onto him, as if there was some sort of correlation.
Following the rules of the road, we came to a stop at a red streetlight. There was a small red Mini Cooper to our left, and when I looked at it, I could see our reflection in the car's side mirror.
I looked scared shitless, but Dominik wore the biggest smile I'd ever seen him have. Granted I've only known him for two days, the guy had on a smile that was full of so much jubilation that it was hard not to smile in return. His pearly whites were on full display, his large canine teeth sticking out like he was wearing Halloween vampire teeth. It was kind of cute, if I was being honest.
The light turned green, and I rested my head back down against Dominik's back.
In the mirror as the Mini Cooper drove off, I could barely make out Dominik's smile grow even more as I rested my head on him. Even a little blush formed on his ecstatic face.
We rode along the street through Nordwestmecklenburg, the ocean drawing nearer. There was a small pier built along the coast that stretched out further into the ocean, with a handful of German tourists out for a stroll to admire the small waves. The coastal town wasn't too well known, hence it was more of a getaway for German citizens, so I had a little difficulty seeing signs in English that I could easily read. I'll really need to stick close to Dominik while we're here. I hope he won't mind.
Dominik pulled up next to the entrance of the pier where there was a spot for people to park their bikes. There must've been a low crime rate since none of the other bikes were locked up. Once the bike was parked, Dominik hopped off, stopping to help me to my feet.
On cue, Dominik wrapped a strong arm around my waist, leading us down the pier. We walked along the wood of the pier, my eyes wide as they took in the sights of the tourist spot. A flock of seagulls flew overhead, squawking loudly as they fought over a French fry. A guy with long hair softly sang a German version of some vaguely familiar song that I know I've heard before back home in Canada, but I couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. Built atop the wooden planks were a few tiny shops that sold cheap souvenirs. There were even some food stalls set up, the sweet aroma of cotton candy wafting along the cold breeze. Again, I was alerted to the fact that I had no money on me, but luckily, Dominik didn't seem to mind spending any of his hard-earned cash.
"Want some?" he asked, nodding towards the cotton candy stand.
"Yes, please," I happily nodded, practically bouncing in place over how fun this trip seemed to be turning into. Just hours before, I'd been dreading being stuck in a random place with a random dude, but now, it didn't seem too bad— especially because he was willing to buy me sweets!
We waited in the short line, coming to the front rather quickly.
"Which one?" Dominik asked me, having to lean down a little bit so that I could hear him over the rumbling of the waves and whooshing of the ocean breeze.
I looked over the varieties that were on the cart, spotting a large one with sparkling pink wisps of surgery goodness that made my mouth water. I have an incredible sweet tooth, and I will happily devour anything that is coated in sugar.
"That one," I said, pointing to the large pink cotton candy that was situated upon a white paper cone.
"Bitte rosa Zuckerwatte," Dominik told the worker, handing him his debit card (I hope he doesn't max out his daily limit on me).
That must be cotton candy in German; and I found myself repeating it over and over in my head to command it to memory. Zuckerwatte. Zuc-ker-vvat-te.
After the payment processed, the worker handed Dominik the large pink cotton candy, who then handed it to me.
"Dankeschön!" I blurted, eagerly tearing off a big chunk and shoving it into my mouth. The sweet goodness melted on my tongue, and I nearly moaned with glee as I gobbled up the delicious cotton candy.
Dominik snickered and ripped off a small piece with his free hand, guiding me over to the edge of the pier. We leaned against the wooden railing, watching the waves as they moved underneath the pier towards the sandy shore. Some of the seagulls rested on the water, bobbing up and down with the movement of the sea, looking totally unbothered.
When he popped the little piece of sugary goodness into his mouth, Dominik grimaced for a second, but still swallowed. Oh, I guess he's not a fan of sweets. But if he doesn't like sugar, then why would he waste his money on this bitchin' cotton candy?
Shrugging to myself, I took another large hunk and began to munch on it, a wide smile on my face.
"You know," Dominik muttered in his deep voice, his words slow and calculating, "I could buy you more Zuckerwatte if you stay in Deutschland." His face was turned towards the ocean, admiring the orangish-red sunlight that danced off the blue-green water, yet, his yellow eyes moved to the side to gauge my reaction. His arm that was around me tightened a bit, pulling me closer to his warm body.
"They have cotton candy back in Canada," I laughed, before perking up with a fun fact of the day. "Did you know that a few of the older people back home call it 'Fairy Floss'? Weird, right?"
I don't think Dominik was into trivia facts very much, because his small smile fell in a snap, quickly being replaced by his usual scowl. "Yeah..."
Not wanting him to be all mopey the rest of this trip, I quickly added, "You could always come visit me in Canada." Hell no, I didn't really expect Dominik to fly all the way from Germany to Canada for my ass. It was one of those empty gestures that people make all the time, like when they tell each other that they hope they have a nice day. No one really means that!
Dominik just snorted, yet I could clearly see the corner of his mouth twitch upwards. "It's a little hard for ein Wer— *cough, I mean, for someone like me, to travel to a different country."
"Why's that?" I asked him, cocking my eyebrow at him. I mean, I'm only nine and Emilia's sixteen, so if we can literally move continents, I think anyone can. "Canada's easy to go to. Dad moved there from Germany back when he had a better hairline."
Dominik gave a throaty chuckle.
"And my mom moved there from Argentina," I said. "All by herself, too."
After that little factoid, I paused in thought. I've only seen Alaric, so I don't know a single thing about Dominik's mother. The curiosity grew within me, and after swallowing another chunk of cotton candy, I figured that there was no true harm in asking.
"Um, so, where are your parents from?" I asked, thinking that was a safer way of navigating the question in case Dominik wasn't a fan of his parents. He seemed cool with Alaric, although even I thought the latter was a bit hard on him sometimes. It was almost as if he were keeping Dominik straight in line, like one of those drill sergeants in military movies... as if Dominik were being prepped for something.
The older guy's grip on me grew tighter (as if that were possible). "My father is from Bedburg," he muttered, "born and raised, like me." He was quiet for a little bit, his yellow eyes staring back over the ocean water. "I never met my mother." His jaw clenched.
"Never?" I asked, feeling down for him. I considered myself closer to Dad, but I still love Mom and I'd be heartbroken if I didn't have the relationship that I have with her now. I couldn't imagine how Dominik must've felt, never having that connection with his own mom.
He shook his head. "My father told me that she was one of the Americans stationed at the base at Kaiserslautern and they met during a drunken night at the bar," he huffed, his words slow, like he was being careful as he spoke for some reason. "After I was born, she had to move somewhere else, and we never heard back from her." He was quiet after that.
A pang of guilt hit me over opening that apparent wound that he had, and I struggled to think of anything to say.
"Um, want some?" I meekly asked, ripping off a piece of cotton candy and holding it up towards his face.
Dominik looked down at the pink sugar that I was offering to him, and frowned for a moment before shrugging his broad shoulders. He leaned down and opened up his mouth wide, giving me a clear view of his sharp teeth again. He grabbed the cotton candy from my hand with his mouth, his warm lips brushing up against my fingers.
For a second time, Dominik looked a little grossed out as he ate the cotton candy, yet he still swallowed it. His disgust vanished from his face when he looked back towards the rest of the pier.
"Hey, want to try that?" he asked, gesturing down the pier towards one of the shops.
I craned my head towards where he pointed, seeing a large box that had a red curtain along one of its sides: a photo booth. Oh, that sounds like fun!
"Yeah," I smiled, finishing off the rest of the cotton candy real quick. We tossed the paper cone into the nearby trashcan before heading over towards the photo booth.
It was a really small machine, and judging by the tiny size of it, Dominik and I would practically be sitting on top of one another inside of it. Once we got in, Dominik swiped his card in the pay slot, an array of different photo options popping up onto the small screen that was in front of us. Sure enough, as guessed before, it was really cramped inside. Since I'd gotten in first, I was pressed against the far wall, my left leg entire on top of Dominik's right as he sat on the small bench next to me. Again, he rested his large arm around my shoulders, tugging me in closer to his large body; he used his free hand to press the options on the screen. It was in German, so I couldn't tell exactly what everything said, but I could deduce that we were getting a total of three pictures and that they were black in white since color was two euro extra.
There was a little screen with a variety of borders/themes available, with some of them being ocean themed (makes since due to our location, and it was totally the one I'd choose), jail themed, and racecar. Dominik's index finger hovered over the ocean one for a moment, and he bit down on his lower lip, deep in thought.
The dude seemed to flinch, his finger pressing down on the option to the right of the ocean one. It was border theme that consisted entirely of hearts and little cartoonish depictions of Cupid, meant entirely for some lovey lovey couple out on a date— not two guys who had accidentally gotten on the wrong train!
"Oops," Dominik grunted. "Too late to change it though."
"We can press the back arrow and—"
"The first picture's starting soon, smile."
Whatever.
I held up my hand, forming a peace sign like I've seen tons of characters in the anime shows I've watched do. I smiled widely, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Dominik wasn't smiling. Instead he was making one of those stoic, too-cool-to-smile faces that some teenage boys get once they get all angsty and want to be an edgelord.
A bright light flickered out from the screen, leaving rainbow spots in my vision.
"Let's do a funny one!" I cheered, trying to think of a goofy face that I could make. It's really hard since everything I do keeps turning out hot. I can't turn it off!
I crossed my eyes, a trick I've been able to do since kindergarten, and even stuck my tongue out. I was still smiling because I thought it was a pretty fantastic funny face that I was making. However, again, out of my sideview, I could see that Dominik was remaining stone-faced. Why would he suggest that we try out the photo booth if he wasn't even going to bother smiling for a single photo?
The light flickered again, letting us know that two out three of the pictures were done.
Oh well, even if Dominik didn't want to have fun with it, I was still trying to think up a theme for the final one. I'm just saying, if we'd chosen the ocean one, we could've plugged our noses and acted like we were holding our breath as if we were underwater. But no, instead Dominik's thick finger had to choose the heart theme.
Ooh, wait!
"Here," I said, holding out my left hand to form half a heart in the middle of us.
Dominik looked down at me in confusion. "Was?" he asked, scrunching up his face.
"It's a heart," I explained. "We have a heart background, so it makes sense." I looked up at him expectantly, my eyes switching between his stunned face and my half-heart hand.
"Oh," Dominik coughed, that pinkish hue reappearing on his face. With a shaky hand, he formed the other half of the heart. Because he was way bigger than me, his half of the heart was way larger than mine, but one could still tell what it was if they squinted hard enough.
I looked back towards the screen and smiled widely.
There was a final flash of bright white, and an automated voice chimed out, "Genieße deinen Tag!" The whirring of the printer sounded out.
It didn't take long for the machine to spit out our pictures, giving us a long, thin piece of shiny paper with our black and white faces on it. Sure enough, on the first two, I was smiling widely and looking like a straight up model while Dominik just stared blankly ahead.
However, the last one at the very bottom was different. Sure enough, the both of us were forming a heart for the camera and I had on my shiny smile that was Vogue worthy. But something was off with Dominik.
"Hey," I frowned, "you're not looking at the camera."
Go figure, the one time Dominik actually takes the time to smile in a picture, his goofy grin isn't directed towards the darn camera! Instead, his head was turned to the side, his gaze one-hundred percent focused on me. Even his eyes were directed at me, his fanged smile wasted on me instead of being for the camera. Oh well.
Dominik snatched the pictures from me, looking them over. Once he eyed the last one, the redness on his face deepened. "Oh, y-yeah," he stammered. "I'll hold on to these." He took out his wallet and tucked the pictures safely into the billfold, before shoving it back into his pocket.
After that, we ventured around the pier some more, checking out the random shops that were available. Most of them sold the same exact stuff: overpriced figurines in the shape of sea creatures that had "Nordwestmecklenburg" etched onto them. Even so, Dominik still bought me a stuffed animal that was in the shape of seal. He'd originally asked if I'd wanted the wolf one, but since wolves don't really have much to do with the ocean, I'd declined and had pointed at the white seal instead. He'd frowned, but had still bought it for me. We even had some more food, stopping for bratwurst and chips, which I don't know how, but they seemed to taste even better by the ocean. Maybe it's something they put in the oil to fry them? Either way, it was delicious! And holy crap, not only is Dominik the most angsty teen in all of Germany, but he's also the biggest carnivore too! No lie, the dude demolished five whole bratwursts, and I could still hear his stomach growling afterwards. Insane...
Finally, Dominik glanced at one of the clocks that was affixed to a light post, looking bummed out. "Oh," he muttered, "we have to head back to the train station." His shoulders fell and the lines along his mouth deepened as his frown settled in.
I couldn't help but frown too. Even I had to admit that Nordwestmecklenburg was a nice place. It wasn't anywhere near as large as Frankfurt, but I still managed to have a pretty good time. There was something about spending a few hours on the pier with someone that seemed to make my stomach feel all bubbly, in a good way. Even if that person was Dominik, a.k.a. Cranky Pants, I still had a pretty solid time. Overall, I'd rate this excursion an A.
Plus, the best part was that I hadn't spent the day alone.
It had started off as a complete and utter disaster with my dumb ass getting on the wrong train, but at the end of the day, I enjoyed myself. And I have to admit that it's all because of a certain someone who STILL had his arm around me as we walked back towards our bike.
We passed by a young woman who was dressed up in a beautiful yellow dress that flowed in the wind. It was a little startling to see that her eyes seemed to match the same yellow tone of her clothes, and as we drew closer, her nostrils flared. Her yellow eyes widened and she took a hesitant look towards Dominik, and then towards me, her gaze zeroing in on the hoodie that I wore.
There was a low rumble that emanated from Dominik, and I could feel his body vibrate as he bared his teeth like a frickin' dog.
Without a word, she averted her gaze and quickened her pace, putting as much distance between us as possible.
Dominik puffed out his chest and a smirk formed on his face over the interaction, his hold on me tightening even more.
"Wha—?" I tried to ask, but was silenced by the onslaught of tourists who seemed to shove their way towards the pier all at once. A packed train must've arrived a couple minutes ago, because a large tsunami of tourists seemed to storm the pier all at once.
I tried to reach up and hold onto Dominik so that we wouldn't get separated, but someone roughly bumped into us, and Dominik lost his grip on me.
I stumbled off to the side, trying to catch my footing so that I wouldn't faceplant onto the splintery wood. I wound up catching myself at the railing, scanning the large crowd for any sign of the mad man who was my chaperone.
"Dominik!" I shouted out, my small voice barely audible over the roar of the crowd.
I couldn't hear him call back, nor could I see him through the swarm of people. Shoot, it was as if he'd vanished from the pier altogether, and I could already hear my dad and Emilia bringing up the embarrassing fact that I always seem to get lost no matter where I go.
I mean, I guess I was already technically lost since I was supposed to be in Frankfurt as opposed to Nordwestmecklenburg— so damn, I'd gotten lost in a place I was already lost in. What a horrible world record to hold.
"Dominik!" I cried out again, even cupping my hands around my mouth.
No response (or if there had been, I couldn't hear/see it).