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Sokka woke up to a finger poking him in the cheek, slowly pushing his head until it slipped off the pillow. He swatted the hand away but it returned, persistent. He opened bleary eyes to find that he was nose-to-nose with Aang, who always looked too cheerful, but it was especially egregious in the middle of the night.
“Whatever it is, the answer is no,” Sokka grumbled, deliberately closing his eyes and turning away from his boyfriend. Aang continued the assault on his face, this time curling his fingers into the side of Sokka’s neck, where he was most ticklish. Sokka yelped and instinctively jerked his head down, trapping Aang’s hand between his check and his shoulder. “I hate you so much,” he moaned balefully, glaring at the other man.
“We’re going on a date,” Aang announced, not in the least put off by Sokka’s whining. Sokka rubbed his eyes with one hand and scrabbled for his phone on the bedside table with the other. He stared at his lock screen in disbelief.
“A date? Right now?”
“Yep! Get dressed.”
“Aang,” Sokka said slowly, turning his phone so Aang could see the screen. “It’s three in the morning.”
“I know,” Aang responded, unperturbed. “We’re actually running a little late, so you need to hurry.”
Sokka peered at Aang, illuminated only by the bluish glow of his phone screen, trying to figure out if this was a joke. If it was, it was rather elaborate; Aang was fully dressed, layered up like he was expecting to be cold. A part of Sokka wanted to tell Aang to fuck off and let him go back to bed; between work and school, he barely got to sleep as it was without being awoken for late night adventures.
Instead, he sighed and slithered out of bed, shivering as his bare feet hit the cold hardwood floor. Aang cheered and wrapped his arms around Sokka’s shoulders, kissing him on the cheek. He wouldn’t be surprised that Sokka was going along with whatever nonsense was happening. Nobody told Aang to fuck off. He had a rare goodness to him, one that radiated out of him like light, that you just couldn’t say no to. Sokka could whine and complain as much as he wanted, but he knew he would follow Aang to the ends of the earth if he asked him to.
Sokka dressed quickly, taking his cue from Aang to prepare for the chill outside. It was late autumn, not cold enough to snow yet, but the temperature outside would be near freezing. The second he finished lacing his boots, Aang hooked one arm through his elbow and dragged him out of the house, bundling him in the passenger seat of their car as though trying to get him out of the house before he could change his mind.
“Where are we going?” Sokka asked uselessly, knowing that if Aang wanted him to know what was going on, he would tell him. As predicted, Aang hummed unhelpfully, pulling out of the driveway and heading to the freeway. There were no other cars out, giving the whole situation a weird, otherworldly quality.
Sokka settled back in the car seat, crossing his mittened hands over his chest. He could tell Aang felt a little bad for dragging him out of bed, because he was playing the kind of music that Sokka liked. Aang referred to the Viking death metal as “not his cup of tea,” which in Aang-speak meant “weird horrible screeching about pirates,” and he usually only listened to it when Sokka forced him to. The view outside the car window was bleak and empty, so Sokka turned to watch Aang. A fond smile crept onto his face; kidnapping you in the middle of the night was exactly the kind of adventure that Aang loved, and was exactly why Sokka had fallen for him in the first place. He couldn’t even really bring himself to be worried about where they were going, he trusted Aang that much.
“You’re smiling at me.” Aang was looking at him now, mischief glittering in his gray eyes. Sokka quickly schooled his expression back into a scowl.
“No I’m not.”
“Yes you are,” Aang laughed, reaching one arm over to pinch Sokka’s cheek. “You liiiiiiike me.”
Sokka captured his hand and held it between his own in his lap. The teasing tone melted out of Aang’s laugh, and he looked at Sokka with such warmth and affection that Sokka was sure he would catch on fire. No one human could receive that much love all at once. But Aang broke a lot of the rules that Sokka had though he knew about the universe.
The heavy silence between them lasted about three seconds before they started chattering. The two of them could always find something to talk about, whether it was the state of global politics, or what time the day turned from afternoon to evening. After about 20 minutes, Aang pulled off the freeway, and Sokka finally realized where they were going.
“What are we doing at the meadow?” he inquired as Aang slowed down for the bumpy, unpaved street. This road twisted and turned through the forest, ending at a large empty field at the top of a hill. It was a frequent date spot for them because of how isolated it was, but those dates usually happened during the day.
“You’ll see,” Aang grinned knowingly. The rest of the drive was spent with Sokka’s face smushed against the window, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever surprise Aang had planned. All he could see by the flash of the headlights were trees, trees, and more trees. They made it to the meadow with Sokka still completely befuddled by what they were doing there, and why they had to do it at three in the morning. Aang got out of the car and went to the trunk, pulling out a large backpack that he must have planted before he woke Sokka up. Sokka slowly unfolded himself from the car as well, gasping at his first breath of ice-cold air. Before he could even think about asking Aang what was going on, the other man grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the middle of the meadow.
At the crest of the hill, Aang dropped the backpack to the ground and pulled out their picnic blanket, which he spread out on the grass with a dramatic flourish. Sokka sat down next to him, draping an arm around him and pulling him in tight, greedily drinking in his body heat.
“What—”
“Do not ask what we’re doing, you’ll know it when you see it,” Aang admonished him, tucking himself even closer to Sokka’s side. He dug around in the backpack, triumphantly pulling out a thermos and two camping mugs.
“Hot chocolate?” Sokka eagerly watched Aang pour the steaming liquid into one of the mugs, glad to have something warm to fight off the night chill. He clasped the mug between his hands, and he waited.
For about a minute.
“So what—”
“Ssh!” Aang rested his head against Sokka’s shoulder, shifting so he could look up into the night sky. “Be patient.”
Sokka was not a patient man, but he obediently shushed and waited. He craned his neck back to fully take in the night sky. This far away from the city, it was dark enough that he could see the Milky Way, spiraling endlessly across the inky blackness. Unsure of what he was waiting for, he passed the time identifying all the constellations in his head. There were the easy ones, Orion’s Belt, the Big and Little Dipper. He found Aquila, the Eagle, and Cassiopeia next. He was still searching for his favorite, Lupus, when a streak of light shot across the sky.
“Star!” Sokka shrieked, grabbing Aang’s arm and almost spilling both of their mugs. “There was a shooting star, did you see thatOH MY GOD, there’s another one!” His arm flailed wildly in the air, pointing out the path of the second shooting star. “That was so cool, did you see—wait, there’s another one! And another…” Sokka trailed off as one after another, shooting stars began to rain across the sky.
“It’s a meteor shower,” Aang explained, beaming almost as much as Sokka was. “Do you like it?”
Sokka tore his gaze from the magnificent display above them to bend his head down and press his lips against Aang’s. Aang smiled into the kiss, one hand coming up to cradle the back of Sokka’s neck, pulling him closer. Sokka pulled back before Aang could deepen the kiss and distract him, chuckling at Aang’s pout. “It’s amazing. I love it.”
The two men turned their attention back to the sky, flashes of light cutting into the blackness. Some of the meteors were small, barely visible dashes. Sokka liked the ones that lingered, the ones that slowly meandered across the heavens, bright and beautiful. He was a man of science, but even he could admit that this was something magical.
Once they finished the hot chocolate, Sokka carefully set the mugs to the side and leaned back, pulling Aang with him until they were both laying on their backs. Aang was an aggressive cuddler, somehow working one hand between the buttons on Sokka’s jacket to wrap around his waist, his head pillowed on Sokka’s chest. They stayed out long past the end of the meteor shower, dozing off until the gray light of dawn peeked over the horizon.