“Once upon a time I was a businessman who met a salesman. We collided like two death stars. There was no trust, no empathy. But a common friend forced us to stay. So we began to play.

We started to train martial arts together (Sports, the only way non-gay men are allowed to exchange intimacy). And with each punch we revealed a bit of who we were behind our masks of fiction. Opened up, received a hit, opened up wider.

And after months a relationship emerged, tentatively but steadily. And out of the colliding masks of fiction arose two men who cared for each other, who trusted, who shared their lives.

Yesterday this man spotted a demon in the corner of my eye. And instead of overlooking it politely, he stopped me in my ways of hiding it. He kindly challenged me to face it and offered his help in doing so.

“I want to help you, and I want you to help me,” he said. And as the masks burned down two friends walked out of their ashes.”

— Andreas Tischler