2025-07-10, 01:50 PM
“Tüt-Tüüüüt-Tüt-Tüüüüt-Tüt-Tüüüüt...”
An unpleasant and loud two-tone beep woke me up. “Shit, not again,” I thought, but I jumped out of bed more or less motivated. Now I had to act fast.
What had woken me up so rudely was my pager. Every member of the volunteer fire department has a device like that, which can call you to the fire station at any time of the day or night.
The drive to the station was quick and quiet, after all it was 5 o'clock in the morning and the streets were accordingly empty. We didn't waste any time at the station. Putting on the turnout gear took
half a minute, into the big red car and off we went.
Since the operation site was quite a distance away, I was able to let my thoughts wander a little... And they wandered, they wandered far back to a time when being woken up at night was not an unpleasant reality, but a blurred vision of the future that one looked forward to.
I never had many friends; as a ten-year-old, I only called about a dozen of my peers “friends”. But the friendship with the few I had was all the closer. All the boys in our group lived in a residential area on the outskirts of town, near a large playground that we always hung around.
We had one thing in common: we had no desire to join a sports club or similar organization, even though some parents would have liked us to. Many of our classmates were in such clubs and served as a negative example for us – we had no desire to be told to always do the same thing on a certain day of the week and to expose ourselves to the pressure to perform in sports. Too often we heard: “No, tomorrow I don't have time, I have training. I would like to, but in two weeks is the game...”
One memorable day, however, Tobias, one of my best friends, asked me if I would like to go to the youth fire department with him. His brother Martin, three years older, had also joined the youth group of the local fire department at the age of 10 and had been very enthusiastic about it ever since.
Tobias had been persuaded by his brother to come to the fire station with him, and now he was trying to persuade me to come with him, because he didn't want to go there all alone. No wonder, I let myself be talked into it and agreed to have my first encounter with the youth fire brigade next Tuesday at 6 p.m..
In my youthful carelessness, I thought to myself: “I can have a look at it, but it'll probably be stupid anyway...” But how is it always? First, things turn out differently than you expect.
I didn't really feel like going on the said Tuesday, but I kept my promise. Shortly before 5:30 p.m., I set off by bike...
I was a little nervous, not knowing what to expect. A few boys and a girl, all a little older than us, were already sitting on the steps leading to the entrance of the fire station when we arrived.
Since we had cycled here with Martin and were not completely alone, we didn't feel quite so stupid. He introduced us to the others, but more than a shy “Hi” didn't come from our side at first.
After a short time, the first car arrived in the yard - it had to be one of the youth leaders. Indeed, it was Markus, the youth leader, as he introduced himself. (The youth leader is the leader of the youth fire brigade, also sometimes affectionately called the “youth warden”)
Martin proudly showed us the big red vehicles that were parked in the hall, he explained how many liters of water were in the one and the other vehicle tank and how high the turntable ladder reaches and lots of technical stuff like that. I couldn't remember any of it, it was a bit much at once. But I was impressed, I have to admit. All the technology appealed to me more than I ever would have imagined.
Since it was a sunny and hot July day, the evening theory session that was actually scheduled was postponed and a fire extinguishing attack was practiced instead. Just this: We all had a lot of fun, but we were soaking wet at the end of the two-hour practice session.
On the way home, it was clear that we would be back the following Tuesday. A youth leader, I couldn't remember the name, had given us information and registration forms for our parents, which I had my parents fill out that same evening and immediately put back in my backpack so as not to forget them next time.
In the meantime, I had celebrated my 14th birthday, it was midsummer again and a camping trip was on the agenda. I had already been on such a camping trip the last two years, and this time it was supposed to last a whole week, almost twice as long as the previous trips!
For weeks I had been looking forward to the day of departure, because for us, camping meant staying up late, sitting around the campfire, having deep or funny conversations, and spending all that time with my best friends. Yes, by now my circle of friends had changed: almost all of my friends were either in the youth fire brigade or in my school class.
Since many of my youth fire brigade colleagues were on vacation with their parents during the first two weeks of the summer holidays, our group of fellow campers was quite small, with only 12 people including two youth leaders. One advantage of this was that we only needed one of the 16-man tents for sleeping and could use the second one as a “living room”, which was very comfortable and would certainly earn us some envious glances from neighboring youth groups.
Finally the day of days had come, it was time for the best week of my young life - at least that's what I expected back then. With the youth fire brigade's own Ford Transit with a luggage trailer and a private car, we set off for the event, which was taking place further away for the first time and was organized together with a few other friendly fire departments and aid organizations.
In addition to 23 youth fire brigades, some youth groups from the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) and the Red Cross would also be at the youth campsite in deepest Bavaria.
We were actually the first to arrive at the campsite near the small town of Woertzberg, so we could choose the best place, which of course we were happy to take advantage of. The campground attendant recommended a spot to us directly on the shimmering blue shore of the mountain lake, slightly secluded, surprisingly flat and without any hollows on the ground that could cause you to trip in the dark.
As always, we had quickly pitched our tents and were just starting to distribute the camp beds and choose our sleeping places when the second group arrived and set up right next to us. Now we could watch the newcomers unpack and tidy up and make snide comments about their tent-setting-up style while we refreshed ourselves with ice-cold drinks. It had obviously been worth equipping our Transit with a spacious, gas-powered camping refrigerator.
The first few days were behind us, and we had just survived our first night without sleep, which of course made us very proud. However, our joy didn't last long, because today was the day of the camp Olympics.
This meant that we had to work hard to bring home another trophy, which meant that we had to finish at least third. And that in our condition... Fortunately, only very little alcohol was consumed in our fire department, and even less in the youth fire department, because no one would have survived the day with a real hangover. Our youth leaders set a good example, and we had more than enough fun without alcoholic drinks.
We couldn't believe it ourselves, but at the latest when we held the trophy in our hands, we could no longer fool ourselves: we had actually taken first place! Everything had worked out, we had been a perfect team. All evening we basked in the appreciative comments of the other groups and our youth leaders. This camp really seemed to be going damn well...
Strangely enough, I couldn't fall asleep after our victory celebration and the hard day. Despite my efforts, I was still awake even when our two counselors were already asleep. I decided to take a short evening walk, maybe the cold mountain air would help me.
Without waking anyone, I snuck out of the tent wearing a thick sweater and strolled along the shore of the mountain lake, which reflected the almost full moon. An impressive sight that gave rise to a somewhat melancholy mood that I couldn't explain. Great, now I was even more awake than before, but at the same time somehow totally exhausted. “That's my brilliant idea of a walk,” I thought to myself.
Without realizing it, I had moved quite a distance away from the camp. I tried to find a reason for my depressed mood. I wasn't really in a bad mood, somehow I also had the feeling of floating, but that could also be due to fatigue. But why was I wide awake then? Questions upon questions, and no answer wanted to be found... It was strange. I felt very alone, which was somehow painful at the same time, but also reassuring in a way.
A sound directly on the shore made me jump. I had only seen a movement out of the corner of my eye and heard a sound like a sob. My heart was racing, I hardly dared to breathe for a few seconds. After I had calmed down again, I crept on carefully until I could see around the huge boulder that had blocked my view of the shore.
There sat a boy, about my age, apparently crying quietly to himself. Well, there I was, not knowing what to do: should I scare him to death by speaking to him, or should I just disappear? Lost in thought, I clumsily kicked a loose stone down the slope.
Well, now he had heard me. I saw that the poor guy was quite frightened when the silence was broken by the sound of the stone rumbling into the water.
He stared at me for a while, then realized that I must see his tear-stained face in the moonlight and quickly turned away again. I didn't think about what to do, I just did it. To this day, I don't know how I was able to break out of my stupor, but it worked miraculously.
I sat down on a stone about a meter away from the boy and just sat there and looked at the water. I saw that he was from a youth fire brigade very close to my hometown of Sattelwegen, because he was wearing the typical uniform trousers and a sweatshirt with the inscription “Jugendfeuerwehr Siedenbach”.
At least a quarter of an hour must have passed before he asked in a somewhat unfriendly tone: “What are you doing here?” He didn't really manage to make it sound as dismissive as he apparently wanted.
“I'm sitting on a stone, looking at the lake and talking to you,” I replied after a while, ”and what are you doing?”
He didn't answer for a long time, then he just said, “But I'm not talking to you.”
“Too bad... But I'm talking to you anyway,” was my reply. “I'm Lukas, and who are you?” I held out my hand.
Without taking my hand, he murmured softly, “Emanuel” in my direction, then after a while, “Manu.”
I let go of his hand... Well, at least he said something. “So, what are you doing here?”
“I'm sitting on a rock looking at the lake...” was his apt reply. Great, I'd given him a good opening. But at least he had a sense of humor, you had to give him that.
“Hmm, one-nil to you... Ok, I'll start: I couldn't fall asleep, so I went for a walk. By the way, you gave me quite a fright when I heard you behind the rock!”
A slight smile appeared on his face as he replied, “And I almost fell into the water when you were making all that noise up there...”
It was quiet again for a while, only the lake splashed a little on the shore. I caught myself thinking that Manu is actually really cute. Wait a minute, I thought he was cute? Cute... My God, how gay... Hmmm - What was wrong with me? First this weird mood earlier, and then this...
Manu pulled me out of my thoughts: “I couldn't sleep either, because...” His voice trailed off into the silence...
“Why couldn't you sleep? Because we won first place?” I grinned at him. Ok, bad joke. But I'll do it again, I promise.
“Show-off,” he said with a wry grin, but he immediately became serious again, his gaze was infinitely sad. ‘Anyway, you'll find out tomorrow anyway... By tomorrow afternoon at the latest, everyone will know...’ And again he began to sob, he was really shaken.
I waited until he had calmed down a little, then I asked, ”What will everyone know tomorrow?”
“That... That I...” And again he started to cry, it was getting worse. I moved over to his stone and wanted to put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but he pushed me away at the first touch. He was strong, the little one... It was just stupid that we were sitting right on the water and I hadn't expected such a reaction.
I was already preparing myself for the big splash when I received a brief reprieve. Manu had quickly grabbed hold of me, and for a moment it looked like I would be spared the cool, or rather ice-cold, bath.
Unfortunately, gravity had a different opinion, and we both ended up in the lake. Do you know how damn cold a mountain lake is? Yes, I know, glacier water and all that... Shit, was that COLD!
Since the shore was very flat, there was a maximum of 30 centimeters between the water surface and the hard gravel at the bottom, so my landing was anything but pleasant. Manu had no problems with that, he was halfway on top of me and only got wet down below because he could still support himself with his hands on me. I, however, was completely submerged for a short time and was accordingly wet down to my underpants. The hard stones weren't very comfortable either. Great.
Shivering and spitting water, I growled a grumpy “What a bummer” while Manu pulled me back up. So we stood facing each other in the water, with Manu still holding my hands. In the moonlight, I could just make out the corners of his mouth slowly twisting up until he finally started to laugh. Initially still annoyed, I also started to grin and finally we were both laughing our heads off.
Suddenly I saw that he was still holding my hands. I stopped laughing and looked at our hands, grinning. Manu saw this, also stopped laughing and let go of my hands as quickly as if they had suddenly turned red-hot. His face was also glowing red, but soon a wry grin crept into the corner of his mouth.
He just said, “Ass!” And I grinned back.
“Pleased to meet you, Lukas!“ I still had a broad grin on my face, but it quickly disappeared when I was back in the water. What a dog! ‘I'll get you for that...”
He tried to quickly make it to the shore to safety, but I was faster. His ’Hey!” ended in a bubbling sound as he lay in the water in the same place as me just a moment ago.
He quickly got up and jumped on me, and in no time a merciless wrestling match was underway. At some point we were both so out of breath that we both dragged ourselves to the shore. Now we also realized how cold the water actually was and we both started to tremble like crazy.
“Maybe we should go and get something dry to wear,” I suggested, shivering.
The answer was a chattering “Good idea.”
So we walked back to the camp trembling and in silence. It wasn't an awkward silence, and despite the cold I felt somehow warm and comfortable. It was strange, the... feeling of being alone earlier had vanished.
When I arrived at the camp, I wondered how I could sneak into the tent, dripping wet as I was, to get new clothes. Manu saw my hesitation. “If you can't get to your clothes without waking anyone up... My bag is right next to the entrance, I can lend you something until tomorrow... I'm
not entirely innocent in your bathroom either... We're about the same height, so it should fit you.”
I thought about it for a moment and decided to accept the offer – I would hardly be able to get something out of my bag in our tent without waking anyone. “Ok, I'll gladly accept the offer, thank you!”
“No problem,” he grinned and we walked over to his tent. He took out his bag, then we stood there and didn't really know what to do next. Finally Manu said, ”How about a hot shower? The showers are far enough away from the tents, so we wouldn't bother anyone.”
“Well, that's an idea... But is there even hot water at this time?”
“I think so - let's just go and see...”
“Ok, let's go!” And off we went to the showers. Lo and behold, there was really hot water.
And once again it became embarrassing. Although we had both showered with other guys the last few days, we both hesitated. It was somehow different with just the two of us. Finally, I got fed up with it and took off my clothes, jumping into the next shower without looking in Manu's direction.
Shortly thereafter, I heard the shower running next to me and finally dared to take a look. At the same moment, Manu turned to me, looked me briefly in the eyes, and immediately we both turned away again. I noticed how the blood rushed to my face... Well, it was still better than if it had traveled to any other part of my body.
Soon I was warm again to some extent and I also relaxed a bit. Next to me, I heard Manu turn off the shower and I quickly looked over as he went to his towel, which he had placed on the bench opposite the showers. Along with the confusing thought that I liked what I saw, the feeling crept into my head that I had forgotten something. Oh yes, right: I didn't have a towel. Great.
“Umm... Manu?” I finally dared to say to Manu, who was drying himself off.
He turned around while rubbing his hair dry. ”What?”
“Wow,” it shot through my mind, ‘he looks damn tasty!’ After I had pushed this thought aside with some effort, I finally said to Manu, who had just finished drying himself off: ‘Ummm... I don't have a towel...’ And promptly I blushed bright red again and looked at the floor. I should probably get used to that...
“You can have mine, it's big enough that there are still a few dry spots on it.” And with that, he put the towel next to him on the bench and began to put on his shorts.
An unpleasant and loud two-tone beep woke me up. “Shit, not again,” I thought, but I jumped out of bed more or less motivated. Now I had to act fast.
What had woken me up so rudely was my pager. Every member of the volunteer fire department has a device like that, which can call you to the fire station at any time of the day or night.
The drive to the station was quick and quiet, after all it was 5 o'clock in the morning and the streets were accordingly empty. We didn't waste any time at the station. Putting on the turnout gear took
half a minute, into the big red car and off we went.
Since the operation site was quite a distance away, I was able to let my thoughts wander a little... And they wandered, they wandered far back to a time when being woken up at night was not an unpleasant reality, but a blurred vision of the future that one looked forward to.
I never had many friends; as a ten-year-old, I only called about a dozen of my peers “friends”. But the friendship with the few I had was all the closer. All the boys in our group lived in a residential area on the outskirts of town, near a large playground that we always hung around.
We had one thing in common: we had no desire to join a sports club or similar organization, even though some parents would have liked us to. Many of our classmates were in such clubs and served as a negative example for us – we had no desire to be told to always do the same thing on a certain day of the week and to expose ourselves to the pressure to perform in sports. Too often we heard: “No, tomorrow I don't have time, I have training. I would like to, but in two weeks is the game...”
One memorable day, however, Tobias, one of my best friends, asked me if I would like to go to the youth fire department with him. His brother Martin, three years older, had also joined the youth group of the local fire department at the age of 10 and had been very enthusiastic about it ever since.
Tobias had been persuaded by his brother to come to the fire station with him, and now he was trying to persuade me to come with him, because he didn't want to go there all alone. No wonder, I let myself be talked into it and agreed to have my first encounter with the youth fire brigade next Tuesday at 6 p.m..
In my youthful carelessness, I thought to myself: “I can have a look at it, but it'll probably be stupid anyway...” But how is it always? First, things turn out differently than you expect.
I didn't really feel like going on the said Tuesday, but I kept my promise. Shortly before 5:30 p.m., I set off by bike...
I was a little nervous, not knowing what to expect. A few boys and a girl, all a little older than us, were already sitting on the steps leading to the entrance of the fire station when we arrived.
Since we had cycled here with Martin and were not completely alone, we didn't feel quite so stupid. He introduced us to the others, but more than a shy “Hi” didn't come from our side at first.
After a short time, the first car arrived in the yard - it had to be one of the youth leaders. Indeed, it was Markus, the youth leader, as he introduced himself. (The youth leader is the leader of the youth fire brigade, also sometimes affectionately called the “youth warden”)
Martin proudly showed us the big red vehicles that were parked in the hall, he explained how many liters of water were in the one and the other vehicle tank and how high the turntable ladder reaches and lots of technical stuff like that. I couldn't remember any of it, it was a bit much at once. But I was impressed, I have to admit. All the technology appealed to me more than I ever would have imagined.
Since it was a sunny and hot July day, the evening theory session that was actually scheduled was postponed and a fire extinguishing attack was practiced instead. Just this: We all had a lot of fun, but we were soaking wet at the end of the two-hour practice session.
On the way home, it was clear that we would be back the following Tuesday. A youth leader, I couldn't remember the name, had given us information and registration forms for our parents, which I had my parents fill out that same evening and immediately put back in my backpack so as not to forget them next time.
In the meantime, I had celebrated my 14th birthday, it was midsummer again and a camping trip was on the agenda. I had already been on such a camping trip the last two years, and this time it was supposed to last a whole week, almost twice as long as the previous trips!
For weeks I had been looking forward to the day of departure, because for us, camping meant staying up late, sitting around the campfire, having deep or funny conversations, and spending all that time with my best friends. Yes, by now my circle of friends had changed: almost all of my friends were either in the youth fire brigade or in my school class.
Since many of my youth fire brigade colleagues were on vacation with their parents during the first two weeks of the summer holidays, our group of fellow campers was quite small, with only 12 people including two youth leaders. One advantage of this was that we only needed one of the 16-man tents for sleeping and could use the second one as a “living room”, which was very comfortable and would certainly earn us some envious glances from neighboring youth groups.
Finally the day of days had come, it was time for the best week of my young life - at least that's what I expected back then. With the youth fire brigade's own Ford Transit with a luggage trailer and a private car, we set off for the event, which was taking place further away for the first time and was organized together with a few other friendly fire departments and aid organizations.
In addition to 23 youth fire brigades, some youth groups from the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) and the Red Cross would also be at the youth campsite in deepest Bavaria.
We were actually the first to arrive at the campsite near the small town of Woertzberg, so we could choose the best place, which of course we were happy to take advantage of. The campground attendant recommended a spot to us directly on the shimmering blue shore of the mountain lake, slightly secluded, surprisingly flat and without any hollows on the ground that could cause you to trip in the dark.
As always, we had quickly pitched our tents and were just starting to distribute the camp beds and choose our sleeping places when the second group arrived and set up right next to us. Now we could watch the newcomers unpack and tidy up and make snide comments about their tent-setting-up style while we refreshed ourselves with ice-cold drinks. It had obviously been worth equipping our Transit with a spacious, gas-powered camping refrigerator.
The first few days were behind us, and we had just survived our first night without sleep, which of course made us very proud. However, our joy didn't last long, because today was the day of the camp Olympics.
This meant that we had to work hard to bring home another trophy, which meant that we had to finish at least third. And that in our condition... Fortunately, only very little alcohol was consumed in our fire department, and even less in the youth fire department, because no one would have survived the day with a real hangover. Our youth leaders set a good example, and we had more than enough fun without alcoholic drinks.
We couldn't believe it ourselves, but at the latest when we held the trophy in our hands, we could no longer fool ourselves: we had actually taken first place! Everything had worked out, we had been a perfect team. All evening we basked in the appreciative comments of the other groups and our youth leaders. This camp really seemed to be going damn well...
Strangely enough, I couldn't fall asleep after our victory celebration and the hard day. Despite my efforts, I was still awake even when our two counselors were already asleep. I decided to take a short evening walk, maybe the cold mountain air would help me.
Without waking anyone, I snuck out of the tent wearing a thick sweater and strolled along the shore of the mountain lake, which reflected the almost full moon. An impressive sight that gave rise to a somewhat melancholy mood that I couldn't explain. Great, now I was even more awake than before, but at the same time somehow totally exhausted. “That's my brilliant idea of a walk,” I thought to myself.
Without realizing it, I had moved quite a distance away from the camp. I tried to find a reason for my depressed mood. I wasn't really in a bad mood, somehow I also had the feeling of floating, but that could also be due to fatigue. But why was I wide awake then? Questions upon questions, and no answer wanted to be found... It was strange. I felt very alone, which was somehow painful at the same time, but also reassuring in a way.
A sound directly on the shore made me jump. I had only seen a movement out of the corner of my eye and heard a sound like a sob. My heart was racing, I hardly dared to breathe for a few seconds. After I had calmed down again, I crept on carefully until I could see around the huge boulder that had blocked my view of the shore.
There sat a boy, about my age, apparently crying quietly to himself. Well, there I was, not knowing what to do: should I scare him to death by speaking to him, or should I just disappear? Lost in thought, I clumsily kicked a loose stone down the slope.
Well, now he had heard me. I saw that the poor guy was quite frightened when the silence was broken by the sound of the stone rumbling into the water.
He stared at me for a while, then realized that I must see his tear-stained face in the moonlight and quickly turned away again. I didn't think about what to do, I just did it. To this day, I don't know how I was able to break out of my stupor, but it worked miraculously.
I sat down on a stone about a meter away from the boy and just sat there and looked at the water. I saw that he was from a youth fire brigade very close to my hometown of Sattelwegen, because he was wearing the typical uniform trousers and a sweatshirt with the inscription “Jugendfeuerwehr Siedenbach”.
At least a quarter of an hour must have passed before he asked in a somewhat unfriendly tone: “What are you doing here?” He didn't really manage to make it sound as dismissive as he apparently wanted.
“I'm sitting on a stone, looking at the lake and talking to you,” I replied after a while, ”and what are you doing?”
He didn't answer for a long time, then he just said, “But I'm not talking to you.”
“Too bad... But I'm talking to you anyway,” was my reply. “I'm Lukas, and who are you?” I held out my hand.
Without taking my hand, he murmured softly, “Emanuel” in my direction, then after a while, “Manu.”
I let go of his hand... Well, at least he said something. “So, what are you doing here?”
“I'm sitting on a rock looking at the lake...” was his apt reply. Great, I'd given him a good opening. But at least he had a sense of humor, you had to give him that.
“Hmm, one-nil to you... Ok, I'll start: I couldn't fall asleep, so I went for a walk. By the way, you gave me quite a fright when I heard you behind the rock!”
A slight smile appeared on his face as he replied, “And I almost fell into the water when you were making all that noise up there...”
It was quiet again for a while, only the lake splashed a little on the shore. I caught myself thinking that Manu is actually really cute. Wait a minute, I thought he was cute? Cute... My God, how gay... Hmmm - What was wrong with me? First this weird mood earlier, and then this...
Manu pulled me out of my thoughts: “I couldn't sleep either, because...” His voice trailed off into the silence...
“Why couldn't you sleep? Because we won first place?” I grinned at him. Ok, bad joke. But I'll do it again, I promise.
“Show-off,” he said with a wry grin, but he immediately became serious again, his gaze was infinitely sad. ‘Anyway, you'll find out tomorrow anyway... By tomorrow afternoon at the latest, everyone will know...’ And again he began to sob, he was really shaken.
I waited until he had calmed down a little, then I asked, ”What will everyone know tomorrow?”
“That... That I...” And again he started to cry, it was getting worse. I moved over to his stone and wanted to put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but he pushed me away at the first touch. He was strong, the little one... It was just stupid that we were sitting right on the water and I hadn't expected such a reaction.
I was already preparing myself for the big splash when I received a brief reprieve. Manu had quickly grabbed hold of me, and for a moment it looked like I would be spared the cool, or rather ice-cold, bath.
Unfortunately, gravity had a different opinion, and we both ended up in the lake. Do you know how damn cold a mountain lake is? Yes, I know, glacier water and all that... Shit, was that COLD!
Since the shore was very flat, there was a maximum of 30 centimeters between the water surface and the hard gravel at the bottom, so my landing was anything but pleasant. Manu had no problems with that, he was halfway on top of me and only got wet down below because he could still support himself with his hands on me. I, however, was completely submerged for a short time and was accordingly wet down to my underpants. The hard stones weren't very comfortable either. Great.
Shivering and spitting water, I growled a grumpy “What a bummer” while Manu pulled me back up. So we stood facing each other in the water, with Manu still holding my hands. In the moonlight, I could just make out the corners of his mouth slowly twisting up until he finally started to laugh. Initially still annoyed, I also started to grin and finally we were both laughing our heads off.
Suddenly I saw that he was still holding my hands. I stopped laughing and looked at our hands, grinning. Manu saw this, also stopped laughing and let go of my hands as quickly as if they had suddenly turned red-hot. His face was also glowing red, but soon a wry grin crept into the corner of his mouth.
He just said, “Ass!” And I grinned back.
“Pleased to meet you, Lukas!“ I still had a broad grin on my face, but it quickly disappeared when I was back in the water. What a dog! ‘I'll get you for that...”
He tried to quickly make it to the shore to safety, but I was faster. His ’Hey!” ended in a bubbling sound as he lay in the water in the same place as me just a moment ago.
He quickly got up and jumped on me, and in no time a merciless wrestling match was underway. At some point we were both so out of breath that we both dragged ourselves to the shore. Now we also realized how cold the water actually was and we both started to tremble like crazy.
“Maybe we should go and get something dry to wear,” I suggested, shivering.
The answer was a chattering “Good idea.”
So we walked back to the camp trembling and in silence. It wasn't an awkward silence, and despite the cold I felt somehow warm and comfortable. It was strange, the... feeling of being alone earlier had vanished.
When I arrived at the camp, I wondered how I could sneak into the tent, dripping wet as I was, to get new clothes. Manu saw my hesitation. “If you can't get to your clothes without waking anyone up... My bag is right next to the entrance, I can lend you something until tomorrow... I'm
not entirely innocent in your bathroom either... We're about the same height, so it should fit you.”
I thought about it for a moment and decided to accept the offer – I would hardly be able to get something out of my bag in our tent without waking anyone. “Ok, I'll gladly accept the offer, thank you!”
“No problem,” he grinned and we walked over to his tent. He took out his bag, then we stood there and didn't really know what to do next. Finally Manu said, ”How about a hot shower? The showers are far enough away from the tents, so we wouldn't bother anyone.”
“Well, that's an idea... But is there even hot water at this time?”
“I think so - let's just go and see...”
“Ok, let's go!” And off we went to the showers. Lo and behold, there was really hot water.
And once again it became embarrassing. Although we had both showered with other guys the last few days, we both hesitated. It was somehow different with just the two of us. Finally, I got fed up with it and took off my clothes, jumping into the next shower without looking in Manu's direction.
Shortly thereafter, I heard the shower running next to me and finally dared to take a look. At the same moment, Manu turned to me, looked me briefly in the eyes, and immediately we both turned away again. I noticed how the blood rushed to my face... Well, it was still better than if it had traveled to any other part of my body.
Soon I was warm again to some extent and I also relaxed a bit. Next to me, I heard Manu turn off the shower and I quickly looked over as he went to his towel, which he had placed on the bench opposite the showers. Along with the confusing thought that I liked what I saw, the feeling crept into my head that I had forgotten something. Oh yes, right: I didn't have a towel. Great.
“Umm... Manu?” I finally dared to say to Manu, who was drying himself off.
He turned around while rubbing his hair dry. ”What?”
“Wow,” it shot through my mind, ‘he looks damn tasty!’ After I had pushed this thought aside with some effort, I finally said to Manu, who had just finished drying himself off: ‘Ummm... I don't have a towel...’ And promptly I blushed bright red again and looked at the floor. I should probably get used to that...
“You can have mine, it's big enough that there are still a few dry spots on it.” And with that, he put the towel next to him on the bench and began to put on his shorts.