*le smut warning*
The lakehouse was dimly lit through out with the yellowy light of the lamps and the tv droned on senselessly with yet another of the dvd's the hyungs had packed. Taehyung sat snuggled into the couch, side pressed up against Hobi's as he breathed softly through his opened mouth.
At some point, Yoongi hyung bid the group goodnight, followed shyly by Jungkook who was excited to share a room with the elder. Tae dropped off as well, slipping into unconsciousness as he sagged into the couch cushions.
The others were almost all gone when his eyes opened next, Joonie hyung was staring tenderly down and whispering that they should head to their actual beds rather than the uncomfortable couches. Hobi and Tae helped clean up, clearing away cups and plates and following Namjoon and Jin upstairs.
But they weren't ready to sleep yet.
Careful not to wake Jimin, who'd gone to sleep before most of them, he retrieved his hoodie from the foot of his bed where he'd left it at some point. Hobi was waiting in the kitchen, flashlight clutched in one hand and a towel thrown over his shoulder.
"We're really doing this?"
He nodded, smile bringing up his cheekbones and crinkling his nose. "I was completely serious."
"Okay, but be quiet," Taehyung relented, sighing through his nose, "if Jin wakes up he'll kill us."
Hobi agreed easily, well aware that their mission required some level of stealth. They pulled open the heavy door, careful to unlock it from the inside before tiptoeing down the deck stairs to the gravel beneath.
Gravel and detritus crunched beneath their sneakers as they stumbled through the dark to the waiting row boat beached on their little stretch of sand. The lake stretched out before them in shades of black and blue, sparkling lines of light glittered, elongated on the ripples. Hobi ran the towel across the benches and set his flashlight inside, holding up one end as Tae took the other and together they shifted it into the water as quietly as possible. Hobi was giggling as the pair fumbled to step inside, each taking up an oar to push them away from the shallows.
The lake was so quiet, like a plane of silence surrounded by noise. The highway sounds drifted to them above the treetops. The bugs and birds chittered among the leaves. But on the lake, Tae couldn't even hear the water lapping against the side of the boat. There was a tiny glupping sound when fish surfaced to catch at the bugs resting on the water, but other than those small sounds, there was silence. He felt Hoseok shiver across from him and realized he was cold too.
Hoseok breathed out a curse. "The stars, Tae..."
His head thrown back in the almost pitch blackness, Taehyung could barely see his outline in the night, but he was there across from him, solid and in wonder.
Tae looked up.
The stars...
The veil of glittering stars twinkled against the blue night sky. It spread out over the lake and faded out where the lights were too bright. He wasn't sure of constellations and where they were, but he was sure he saw the Big Dipper. Tae thought he could even see the white cloudy nebula of the galaxy past the stars.
It was ethereal, drifting on this dreamscape. The lake stretched their surroundings, swallowed up the stars, and rippled soundlessly all around. With the sky so far out of reach and this otherworldly reflection a handsbreadth away, it was like the inside of a snowglobe, distorted and lovely.
