Dave stands, a storm of emotions churning inside him—wild, ungovernable. The shadow of a shared moment lingers in the air, the trace of a vulnerability he never meant to show. Heinz is still in front of him, his expression a flawless mix of longing and melancholy. He says nothing. He only watches Dave with a gaze that cuts through him, deep and unrelenting. And that's when Dave feels it—the slow cracking of the wall of certainty he had so carefully built.
"Heinz…" he begins, trying to speak, to break the spell, to rebuild the distance between them. But the words get lodged in his throat.
Heinz stares at him with a calm that almost hurts, as if he's patiently waiting for Dave to understand something he's not yet ready to face. A hidden desire. A truth he's long feared. Dave wants to step back, to escape—but something holds him there. A relentless need to understand, to see if this pull he feels is more than just confusion.
"You don't have to say anything," Heinz whispers, his voice almost painful in its gentleness. "But you know I'm not just one more option. Even if you deny it, this—whatever this is between us—is not a coincidence."
Dave swallows hard, trying to silence the pounding in his chest, the urge to cast aside logic and follow a reckless desire. But each step toward Heinz seems to lead him further from his original goal—Axel. And yet, even as he thinks the name, Axel feels more like a memory than a person. A distant echo, abstract and unreachable, as though in some corner of his mind, Dave had already begun to reshape him into something he never truly was.
"This changes nothing," he mutters, trying to convince himself. "What just happened… it doesn't mean anything."
Heinz smiles, but the sorrow in his eyes is impossible to ignore. He takes a step forward, gaze steady, challenging.
"Funny, isn't it?" he says, voice laced with equal parts mockery and empathy. "You can face demons, cross dimensions—none of that scares you. But one moment of vulnerability, and you're ready to run. The idea that here, with me, you might find something different—something you've always wanted but never dared to seek… that's what terrifies you."
The words cut through Dave like a blade. Each syllable stings with the uncomfortable truth of how little he knows himself. In this twisted dimension, his identity feels fractured, his purpose diluted. Even the idea of "home" seems to have lost its meaning. What if Heinz is right? What if this man—this impossibility—offers something Axel never could? Something real?
He shakes his head, trying to erase the thought.
"You have no idea what you're talking about," he snaps. "You don't know what it's like to be me. This... you... it's just a distraction. I won't fall for a fantasy that doesn't belong in my life."
But his voice lacks conviction. The coldness he usually wields like a weapon rings hollow now, dulled by the undeniable truth that a part of him does want Heinz—wants him in a way that scares him.
Heinz looks at him without surprise, only quiet resignation and something softer—compassion.
"Maybe you just want to believe that," he says gently. "Because it's easier than admitting someone else could matter to you… just as much as Axel does. But even you know that's not true."
Dave takes a step back, as though putting physical space between them could shield him from the emotional truth laid bare before him. But each retreat only brings him closer to what he fears most. His world has always been a delicate balance of contradictions, and now, for the first time, his heart feels divided in an impossible war. Axel has always been his reason for everything. His shadow. His compass. But Heinz—this stranger who should mean nothing—has shaken the very ground beneath him.
And then a thought creeps in, unbidden: What if he lets go? What if, just for one night, he surrenders to this pull, to this inexplicable draw, and sees where it leads? Maybe then, just maybe, the storm inside him would calm. Maybe it would be enough to help him find his way back home.
"Are you staying or leaving?" Heinz asks softly, his voice carrying a quiet understanding of all Dave's tangled thoughts.
Dave looks into his eyes, searching for an answer in their depth. Everything in him screams that he should walk away, that he should hold onto his purpose. But something stops him—something deeper than reason.
And then, without thinking, he acts.
He closes the space between them in a single, instinctive motion. He pulls Heinz into a tight embrace, filled with pent-up tension, with a hunger born of confusion and desire. Their lips meet again, and in that kiss, Dave feels a release—as if, for the briefest moment, every fear and doubt melts away in the heat of that contact.
This kiss is different. It's deeper, rawer, laden with an emotion neither of them had dared name. They give in, both consumed by a whirlwind of passion and resistance, of a love neither wants to admit and a fear neither can shake.
But when they part, reality crashes back.
Dave is still trapped in a web of contradictions, uncertain of what he feels, and even less certain of how to handle it. But now he knows something has shifted. Heinz has awakened something in him—a new possibility, a dangerous, fragile hope. Maybe it's a mistake. Maybe it's a diversion from everything that matters. But even if he never says it aloud, Heinz has given him something Axel never did: a glimpse of another path.
Dave steps back, desire and caution warring in his gaze. And the thought returns:
What if he just lets go?
Even just for one night.