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“Where are we g-going?” Yoongi couldn’t help but stutter, what with his feet catching on fallen branches as he struggled to keep up with Taehyung in the dark woods. The younger slowed just enough to give Yoongi a quick smile, all white teeth flashing in shadow, before continuing to trudge forward. Taehyung moved silently but his gait looked exhaustive, his long limbs deftly swinging forward with the same hectic energy as his grin. Yoongi stumbled again, cursing as he caught himself. “Hey, Taehyung! Why won’t you answer me? We’ve been walking for ages.”
“It’s only been ten minutes, hyung,” Taehyung chuckled. Yoongi whined, kicking his foot out in frustration as Taehyung kept walking. Yoongi was never one for hikes, but Taehyung had insisted on this nighttime jaunt with such a hopeful look in his eye that Yoongi couldn’t possibly turn him down. And so he followed along with a sigh, at the same time enjoying the way Taehyung seemed to bounce with excitement as he went on. After a few moments, Taehyung slowed ever so slightly before turning to extend one large hand out to him. Yoongi glanced from Taehyung’s outstretched palm up to the patient smile on the boy’s face, just barely visible in the shadows. He felt his own lips stretching into the small half moon grin, the kind that was forever waiting under the surface when he was around Taehyung. It came unbidden and brought with it that foreign fluttering feeling in Yoongi’s chest. He pursed his lips, trying to force the corners of his mouth down into a frown.
“What’s this?” Yoongi asked jokingly. Taehyung laughed under his breath, moving closer to Yoongi with his hand still outstretched. Yoongi took it and Taehyung pulled him into the circle of his arms.
“You’re pouting,” Taehyung giggled, cupping Yoongi’s chin in his palm.
“I am not,” Yoongi protested, but it sounded weak even to him.
“You are,” Taehyung cooed. Then he pulled apart from him so that all that remained of their embrace were two palms pressed together. Yoongi could feel the warmth of Taehyung’s skin and his pulse thrumming just under the surface. Taehyung laced his fingers through Yoongi’s, and the rhythm jumped under his touch as their eyes met again. “Come on,” Taehyung continued. “It’s just past here.”
“What’s just past here?” Yoongi said, but Taehyung was already pulling him through a dense thicket with a glint in his eyes that seemed to whisper something to him. Just wait, he seemed to say. Yoongi let his questions fall away as they stepped over a gnarled tree root and through a gap in the low-hanging branches. The night gave way to a sudden emptiness and Yoongi, who had been carefully watching his steps just moments before, gasped at the sight before him.
They were in a clearing, if one could even call it that given how very vast it seemed, with nothing visible for miles but an expanse of rolling hills. The forest formed a border behind them and plush grass spread out before them. The blades looked almost purple in the night and the gentle breeze moving through them made it seem like they’d stumbled upon a wine-dark sea in the middle of the woods. The moon hung low in the sky, surrounded by innumerable glimmering stars so that the night was ablaze with a pure white light. After their journey through the shadowy forest, the clearing felt like a different world entirely.
Awestruck by the otherworldly glow of the diamond sky upon the silent night, Yoongi hardly noticed that he was standing by the edge of the wood alone. A loud pop sounded off followed by a persistent fizzing, pulling Yoongi’s head back down from the stars. Taehyung’s laughter filtered through the air with a delicacy that called to his mind the memory of running fingers along fine crystal to make the surface sing. Sweet and high, enticing him to trace the cool edge again and again.
“Are you going to stand there all night or are you going to join me?” Taehyung called out to him. He sat on a flannel blanket laid onto the grass and held in place by a picnic basket on one end and a large rock on the other, the latter luminescent in the moonlight. He held an open bottle of champagne in one hand, despite the foam flowing out of it and over his wrist, and beckoned Yoongi over to him with the other.
“How did you…” Yoongi trailed off as he stumbled forward and onto the blanket next to Taehyung. “Were you carrying these that whole time?”
“I set it up before I came and got you,” Taehyung answered. Yoongi inched up until he could sense the radiating hum of Taehyung’s presence, close enough that that warmth felt like both his and Taehyung’s all at once.
“Where did you find this place?” Yoongi asked. Taehyung’s eyes glinted mischievously.
“Let’s just say I followed the South star.”
“South star?” Yoongi tilted his head at him. “Shouldn't you follow the North star?”
Taehyung shook his head. “North star to get home,” he said, and then leaned close enough to whisper into Yoongi’s ear. “South star for adventures.” Yoongi rolled his eyes at him and Taehyung relented. “Alright,” he said. “I marked it on my map after a hike.”
"Your map?”
Taehyung looked down shyly as he spoke his next words. “Yes, my map. I keep it with me when I’m hiking and if I find a place I want to take you, I mark it down. I haven’t been here at night before, actually, but others who have always said it was like another planet. Like if you sat here long enough, it’d feel like the moon and stars themselves would come down to dance in the hills. I just had to see it with you. Do you… do you like it?”
Yoongi felt electric heat stinging the tips of his ears, felt a flush spreading across his cheeks. “Of course,” he answered. He felt so very aware of Taehyung’s nearness just then. Taehyung’s doe-like eyes, the smooth slope of his nose, the vivacious curve of his lips, the pearlescent sheen of the moonlight on his skin. Taehyung looked up again. His eyes were as they always were, lively and bright, but they darkened the longer he stared at Yoongi.
Yoongi always felt transparent under Taehyung’s gaze.
Taehyung reached one hand up and twisted a single strand of Yoongi’s hair around his finger. He brought his lips closer, placed a single kiss on Yoongi’s cheek; but the off-kilter tilt to his lips and the way his thumb moved down to rub gentle circles into the sensitive skin just under Yoongi’s jaw betrayed a desire for more. Yoongi parted his lips like two velvety petals opening to the rain and Taehyung leaned in to kiss him soft and slow.
“You’re the North star,” Taehyung said after they pulled apart.
“What?” Yoongi questioned him dazedly.
“Without you, I’m lost,” Taehyung answered. “With you, I’m home.”
He closed the distance between them again and Taehyung gasped softly into the kiss. Yoongi felt himself falling into that rhythm they knew so well. Doused in the moonlight, it felt amplified and alive. When they broke apart again, Yoongi couldn’t help but look up at the sky once more, to the stars blinking down at them like gods playing witness to the crowning of a new world. He knew then, safely ensconced in Taehyung’s arms under Polaris’ watchful eye, that he was home as well.