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“And that’s the North Star.” Homelander pointed out.
“Mm.” Hughie hummed in acknowledgment.
“And then that’s Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.” The supe pointed out another constellation, smiling with satisfaction at how Hughie was actually paying attention. They were both laid on top of a hill out in the thick woods, away from civilization and all the noise. It was Homelanders suggestion after their first date dinner to get away from all the smog and light pollution, and it was proving to be a great idea. Better than a planetarium, right? He smugly thought. Hughie was ruining the suit he wore to dinner by laying down on the ground, but he thought it was worth it. “That’s Lyra. The lyre was played by Orpheus, uh, you know who that is right? All you millennials do, he was in that musical. Don’t you like those?”
“Yep..” Hughie squinted his eyes up at the sky. Wow, he had never seen the sky like this ever. The stars and Homelander combined, it was a great view.
Homelander noticed how Hughie just went quiet and he gulped a little, starting to wonder what he did wrong. He should babble on more about stars, right? Hughie should be impressed with his knowledge—or would he just be embarrassed?
“..okay, what are you thinking about?” Homelander huffed after a minute, a frown tugging at his lips. He turned his head to look over at Hughie finally, catching how he was still looking up at the sky curiously.
“It’s just..I dunno how you can tell all of them apart. They all look the same to me.” Hughie smiled a little. “I never knew you were such an astronomer. And you called me a nerd?” He looked back at Homelander and teased. Lucky for the supe, Hughie couldn’t see how red in the face he just got.
“I-I know a lot of things,” Homelander grumbled. “It’s not just astronomy—I like geology, biology, and literature too.” He lied. Although he knew a lot about these subjects—he was secretly a nerd—he liked astronomy the most. “I had to learn these things, I always wanted to travel the stars. So I learned a lot to get ready for it, you wouldn’t understand.” His gloved fingertips rolled over the dirt and gravel underneath them.
“No no—I understand, I’m sorry.” Hughie stammered a bit, getting flustered too for a moment. “Sorry if I offended you, I was just teasing.” It had been a while, a long while since he had been on a date with a new person since he broke up with Robin. He hated how rusty he felt, he thought Homelander must’ve gone on plenty of dates—little did he know, the supe had near to no experience with shit like this too.
“Oh..” Homelander looked back up at the sky slowly, still frowning.
“I just, yknow, you like astronomy, there’s nothing wrong with that, just like there’s nothing wrong with me liking paleontology.” Hughie gave a simple smile, trying not to let himself ramble.
“No offense,” Homelander started and Hughie knew he was about to say some bullshit. “It’s just…why are you still obsessed with dinosaurs?” The supe just didn’t understand how Hughie seemed to have such an interest he perceived as only children have.
“First off, I’m not obsessed.” Hughie scoffed. “And what do you mean? There are a ton of grown men whose job it is to dig up fossils and study, well, the past of the earth. It’s not just something for kids.”
“But you’re not a paleontologist. It’s just that liking dinosaurs is a bit…childish.”
“Ugh.” Hughie groaned with frustration, and suddenly Homelander regretted ever opening his mouth. Fuck, why couldn’t this have gone smoothly? Curse Starlight for introducing Hughie to his life, he was usually so smooth but felt like such a fuckup in front of him. “See, this is why I don’t open up too much at first. What, do you think I have dinosaur pajamas or something?” (He did but that was beside the point) He sat up, and Homelander very quickly sat up with him, panicked. He was fucking up this date, he had to fix this, fast.
“Hey hey hey, calm down.” Homelander chuckled nervously and smiled, trying to coax Hughie back into his previously happy mood. “I-I just..” he stammered and sighed, then quickly swallowed his pride—something he never did for anyone. “…I’m sorry if I offended you. I was just teasing.” He echoed Hughies earlier statement, though the other man didn’t look too eased. “And hey,” he smiled again. “Even if you did have dinosaur pajamas, I’m sure you’d look great in them.”
“Shut up.” Hughie rolled his eyes, luckily saying that in a playful tone.
“No, I’m serious! You’d look…amazing in your..” Homelander tried to find the words without cringing. “Spiked tail and..sexy claws—“
Hughie burst out laughing, which got Homelander smiling with relief.
“Sexy claws? Are you into that?”
“Well, you can pull off just about anything. If you were wearing that, I could be into it.” Homelander confidently said, and Hughie could feel any heat he had left rush to his cheeks.
“Thanks..” Hughie felt a little shiver run through his body as a breeze of wind came by. “So, you wanna travel the stars..but you haven’t yet? I thought you could.” He cleared his throat and crisscrossed his legs.
“Common misconception, I don’t blame you.” Homelander waved his hand flippantly. “No, I have not. The furthest I’ve gone into the sky has been about 90 kilometers? I got scared and flew back down.”
“Scared? I didn’t think you ever got scared.” Hughie blinked, and Homelander quickly realized what he just confessed. He was showing weakness, to a human, on the first date, this was a fucking bust. Hughie was lucky Homelander liked him enough to not immediately kill him out of sheer panic.
“..no. Heroes can get scared sometimes. Not me anymore, though. That was the old me.” Homelander forced a smile, his gloved fingers curled in the dirt below them, and gripped the grass with a clenched fist. “I was just a kid. Old me was scared that I wouldn’t be able to hold my breath long enough to get to the moon, or I’d freeze, or I wouldn’t be able to fly without oxygen. That’s a bunch of bullshit though, I know my limits.”
“It’s okay to be scared,” Hughie said in such a casual way it got Homelander to blink with confusion. “I get scared a lot.” He gave an embarrassed chuckle. “I was uh, really scared to come out on this date, for example..” his voice trailed off a little.
“Pfft. I could tell.” Homelander couldn’t help but grin. “You were shaking like a wet chihuahua all through dinner, I was afraid you were gonna go to the bathroom and disappear on me.” He remembered the awkward, stiff questions and answers Hughie gave too.
“It wasn’t all through.” Hughies adams apple bobbed and he smiled with embarrassment. “I wouldn’t disappear, I’m not that kind of guy.”
Good. Homelander hated and loved how quickly he was getting attached to such an ordinary man.
“…you still wanna go up there? You could try right now.” Hughie suggested and gently shoulders against Homelanders eagle headed one. The supes eyes widened…he thought for a second.
“Huh. How far do you think I can make it?”
“The moon maybe. You could probably fly all the way to Pluto, you’re Homelander.”
“Yeah. Yeah, okay.” Homelanders eyes had a little twinkle of mischief. “We can continue this date on the moon then, cmon.” He turned over to grab Hughies cold hands, the younger man’s eyes widened with surprise and he started to chuckle. “H-ha, very funny!”
“Oh, I’m deadly serious.” Homelanders sharp canines glinted in his grin, his purr sending a chill down Hughies already cold body. He pulled him up and wrapped his strong arms around Hughie, and the man started to squirm like a cat who didn’t want to take a bath. “H-Homelander! C'mon-!” His voice cracked adorably, just like the first time Homelander flew with him today.
“If there’s anyone I wanna tour around space with, I know a certain someone.”
“And it’s not me! It’s definitely not me!” Hughies voice squeaked and he smacked Homelanders padded arm. He could feel them lift an inch off the ground, and Homelander could hear his blood rush, hear his deer heart thump in his ribcage, his little breaths shaking next to his ear. “You sure?” The supe purred to Hughie, still holding him, and it seemed like the younger man didn’t even notice how their faces were an inch apart now.
“Yes, I’m sure!” Hughie gulped again, and Homelander just wanted to run his teeth over that throat. “Mm. Alright.” The supe dropped him, and the human could finally breathe a sigh of relief, eyes wide like he just went on a rollercoaster. Homelander was floating into the air though, going further up and up, slowly, and Hughie could only admire him from the ground. He watched as his golden hair was illuminated by the full moon above them, bigger than usual this night, his cape gently flapped in the wind, he looked near godlike.
And Hughies star-filled eyes showed he could only think how lucky am I?
“But, I’ll be back in a sec.” Homelander winked, and then with a boom, he was gone. Homelander in all his years had never attempted to fly back up the moon yet now, when Hughie was here, he could do it. Hughie felt the gush of wind in his hair and face as the supe left him only to listen to the crickets and other noises of the night.
He sniffled and looked around at his dark surroundings, fuck, where were they? Ugh, he should’ve brought a jacket.
He got scared for a second when ‘a sec’ turned into a minute. What if Homelander was the one to pull the disappearing act? And now Hughie was stranded in the middle of nowhere, at night, with no fucking cell signal. He was becoming so wrapped up in his thoughts, that he jumped with surprise when he heard and felt another boom, Homelander was back. The ground cracked upon his impact, Homelanders hair was no longer slicked back neatly but the wind had ruffled it, making him look boyish. He had a giddy grin on his face and a little sparkle in his eye, then he held his hands behind his back.
“Honey, I’m home!”
“You’re hard to miss.” Hughie shakily smiled and rubbed his arms a little, still cold being out in the night air. “How was the moon?”
“Fucking boring. There really aren’t any secret bases up there…” Homelander snorted. “Got you a little something.”
“A moon rock?” Hughies eyebrows raised. A present on the first date from space ? What could it be?
“No, guess again.”
“A live alien.”
“Noope.” Homelander popped his P.
“Alright, I’m not guessing again, just tell me.” Hughie quickly gave up, and Homelander chuckled. He walked up beside the younger man and bumped shoulders with him playfully, then nodded up to the moon. “Look.” He whispered.
Hughie looked up and his eyes widened, jaw dropping. “Is that..” he mumbled.
A fucking heart on the moon.
Homelander lasered a heart on the moon for Hughie.
It wasn’t too big, but it was big enough to make out.
The tips of Hughies ears were hot and his heart was beating out of his chest, he kept trying to find the words to say, but they were never coming out. He just kept staring, then closed his dry mouth and looked back at Homelander with blue doe eyes, glossy and pupils dilated with excitement. Homelanders face looked satisfied, his little smirk attracted Hughie to his lips.
“..that’s for me?” He said in a little voice.
Homelander wanted to roll his eyes. “Of course it is.” And you’ll be getting so much more, you deserve so much. “So,” he purred and leaned in a bit to Hughies face—he didn’t even know if the younger man was the type to kiss on the first date, but he figured he deserved to be thrown a bone anyway. Homelander leaned into Hughies ear as if he only wanted him to hear, like he was an exciting little secret. “I take it I’ll be getting that second date?” His soft, slightly demanding voice sent another shiver through Hughies body. The supe pulled away to look back at Hughies still stunned face. Both their baby blue eyes darted to each other’s lips, Homelanders chest bumped against Hughies and suddenly their noses were touching just slightly.
“Hm?” Homelander gently prompted a response. Hughie didn’t notice he wasn’t breathing til Homelander ran his gloved hands up and down his arms slowly, sending little electric shocks through him with each rub. “Y-yeah.” He mumbled, feeling near hypnotized.
“Good. Now, let’s warm you up.” Homelander closed the distance between their lips, and Hughie gladly leaned into it.