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Seokjin had been born of the stars.
He had seen the creation of galaxies and universes, the violent destruction of planets, the beautiful birth of new worlds. He had landed his ship, Epiphany, on asteroids big and small, flew through the diamond rain of Jupiter, even zig zagged through the rings of Saturn (much to the consternation of the American space program and their beautiful Cassini probe), and yet.
And yet.
There he stood in his own kitchen, smoke billowing everywhere, Namjoon probably two seconds away from getting a fire alert, unable to make a simple egg. He was livid.
It probably wouldn't have been such a huge deal if Seokjin hadn’t already had a rough start to the day: a thruster needed looking at the minute they docked at a respite station (something he hadn’t planned on doing for at least another few days), the dishwasher was on the lam again, his pillow was too flat and he hadn’t slept well at all, not to mention the message from his galaxy commander that had been sitting his desk comm for three days, informing him of the meeting he was required to attend in two weeks to decide if his work in the Aurora Mandate was important enough to continue being funded.
It was now almost 10 pm. He had done a full day’s worth of upkeep and chores and downtime, and Jungkook had lain down for a nap not long ago. They had both gotten plenty of things accomplished, so when Jungkook said he was going to sleep for a bit, Seokjin thought, perfect. Dinner would be something simple before they settled in for the night.
But the egg, it seemed, wasn’t about to make it easy for him. Before Jungkook he had never worried about what to make at mealtimes, much less when to eat them. He had gotten used to dealing with his own problems and if he didn’t know how to fix them, he used Google or called Yoongi to guide him through. Solitude had been his friend for years. It had become a part of him; and then one day, while on a stop Earthside to see Minho, he had run into a doe eyed, heavily tattooed boy who had made him feel something other than survival.
Fast forward a few years and now he couldn’t imagine not having the other man by his side. It meant getting used to lots of things, of course: the feed and caring of a human (according to Jimin and Taehyung, who were delighted to have someone to baby) had probably been the biggest thing, but having someone so willing to do things for him and with him also took some time getting used to.
Seokjin loved Jungkook, more than he had ever loved another human in all his years alive and would for all the years he still had in him, if the younger man felt the same. He wanted to do things for him, just because he could and because Seokjin knew it would make him happy. But for every star that ever existed, he couldn’t master a simple egg.
Swearing probably wouldn't make it any better, he mused as he looked down at the charred remains of dinner, but it also probably couldn't hurt either. His lover was always telling him how important it was to feel his emotions organically, not keep them all bottled up inside.
Good thing Seokjin had never had a problem with feeling things.
And so, with a loud “FUCK!” that resounded through the small space (human swear words were so much more fun than most he had learned from his time in space), he threw the ruined food and the pan in the garbage receptacle and smiled at the satisfying thunk it made on the way down to the very bottom of ship’s compactor.
That would show it, Seokjin thought proudly, and he had just turned towards the pantry to find something he knew he could cook without setting alarms off again when the sound of Bam’s nails along the hallway caught his attention.
“Hyung?” a sleepy voice said a few seconds later, “why are you swearing?”
Seokjin turned his head to see Jungkook, who stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the hallway, looking the cutest he had ever looked.
(“You say that every morning,” Jungkook had whined one day, immediately barreling into his chest and hiding his face into his neck. “Because it’s true,” Seokjin had replied. That was enough reason for him.)
His hair was mussed, eyes droopy and cheeks puffy, feet only halfway into the Snoopy slippers Hobi had gotten him the last time they had visited Earth. He never woke up easily unless it was to Seokjin’s mouth or their doberman’s frantic barks signaling he needed to use the turf, and even then it was a struggle.
This morning it had never been more apparent, and Seokjin hoped it would be enough to distract him. “Hi, bun. Everything’s fine.” He turned his attention back to the pantry and hoped he looked nonchalant.
“You sure?” Jungkook shuffled the rest of the way into the kitchen after yawning loudly and stretching and opened up the garbage chute. Even Bam trotted over and gave an interested peek, but he always liked to be included in things. “It smells like burnt eggs in here.” He waved a hand through the air. “It’s a little smoky, too.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
A beat. Jungkook hummed.
“Hyung.” Seokjin could practically feel his eyes burning into his skull but he wasn’t going to give in.
“Yes?”
Strong arms wrapped around him then, still warm from the cocoon of blankets he insisted on sleeping in and strong enough to lift anything Seokjin couldn't when they were doing repairs. They felt like home to him, more than this ship and more than any building had ever felt to him. Even the outermost reaches of space couldn’t make him feel this way.
It was strange the things he found himself able to feel now.
Jungkook rested his chin on his shoulder. “You’re being silly again,” he said, and there was a hint of laughter in his voice that told Seokjin he really didn’t care about the eggs, he never cared when he ruined them (more times than he would admit), but that didn't stop him from huffing quietly.
(Epiphany’s voice log, which ran 24/7, would actually record the huff as quite loud.)
“I had a plan ,” he said seriously. He turned to look Jungkook in the eye. “I wanted to have dinner ready by the time you woke up so we could watch the Interior meteor shower together.” Appearing once every hundred or so years, Seokjin had been pleased to see that it would line up perfectly with their time in the Venaldi system. “But then I got shells in the pan and then the yolk broke and then I turned around for one second and suddenly they were burnt!”
“Aish, hyung.” Jungkook shushed him with a finger to his lips. Seokjin pouted in reply. “We can still watch it together and I’m perfectly capable of making us food.” A kiss was pressed to his forehead. “You don't have to be good at everything, you know.”
Seokjin nodded agreeably, if a little sullenly, and from where he lay on the floor gnawing on a bone, Bam barked in agreement. After another forehead kiss he let himself be led to the kitchen table and sat on a chair before Jungkook went over to the fridge himself for a look. “How about something simple today, and then we can open the dome so we don’t miss anything.”
“I’m not really hungry anymore, Kook –”
But he was already moving at lightspeed, spinning a pan in one hand and grabbing kimchi from the fridge in another. Seokjin watched as he effortlessly threw together a meal, scrambling protein, heating up the kimchi and rice and slicing scallions as a garnish. A glass of his favorite juice and Jungkook’s iced coffee took their places, Bam resided underneath the table to catch any bits that fell to the floor, and –
“Dinner is served,” Jungkook said with a flourish. He grinned as he took a sip of coffee and gestured to Seokjin’s bowl. “Come on, hyung, before it goes cold.”
And it was perfect, as Seokjin knew it would be. Jungkook had a way around the kitchen that was as seamless as he was around the operations of this ship. He had an appreciation for food that at times seemed a bit over the top, but give the man any ingredients and he was sure to whip up something that would leave Seokjin’s belly full.
They made small talk as they ate - how did you sleep, did you hear Bam snoring, I had the strangest dream about Jimin hyung, this was delicious, I love you - and then quickly set their dishes in the sink for later and made their way to the observation deck, turning the shields on high as they walked.
After settling together on the long couch Seokjin had haggled for at an open market on the planet Chronos, where it rained glass shards and the winds were enough to topple Earth made buildings, Jungkook grabbed a blanket and settled it over the both of them before reaching over to open the panels of the dome.
The sight never failed to take Seokjin’s breath away. It looked different in every galaxy but there were always stars, even if they were larger and brighter than the ones before. Some planetary explorers, especially the ones who came from Earth, found the never ending vacuum of space daunting, and most never stuck through to the end of their ventures, but not Seokjin.
Bam settled himself between their feet as Jungkook lowered the lights so they could see better and then reached an arm across Seokjin’s shoulders to pull him in close. ”Comfy?” he murmured. Seokjin nodded in agreement.
They watched as the main event began. It seemed like time stopped just for them: the sky, already bleeding inky darkness in every direction, seemed to turn an impossible shade of black, only for streaks of color to suddenly fly across the vast expanse, one after another after another. Jungkook gasped as brilliant colors of ruby and emerald exploded in front of them. The galaxies in his eyes shone brighter than ever as he watched, and even though Seokjin had been dying to see this display for years, he couldn’t help but watch his face instead.
The wonders of space, while not exactly dull to Seokjin, also weren’t brand new anymore. He often forgot how incredible they must seem to travelers who were just making their first voyages, Jungkook included, and it was always a joy to witness him see something for the first time. Even Bam seemed to watch in wonder.
The shower lasted only minutes - the Interior comet, though impressive, moved fast - and all too soon the colors faded and the meteoroids went on to deteriorate in the atmospheres of planets below their ship. Seokjin lowered the shields back to normal once there was no danger they would be struck with any stragglers and fiddled with the dome windows so a bit of light still shone in before settling back against the couch, sighing softly. “Wow.”
“That was incredible, hyung,” Jungkook said quietly. He reached out for Seokjin’s hand and intertwined their fingers together. “I’m glad we were here to see it.”
“Me, too.”
“It was so bright! There were so many stars, hyung, I couldn’t even try to pick just one to make a wish on, so I made it on all of them.”
“A wish?”
Jungkook looked towards him. “Yeah. Haven’t you ever wished on a star?” he said.
“No.” Seokjin frowned slightly. There were still Earth customs he had never picked up on, even when he had lived there for a few years around the turn of the century, and this seemed to be another one. “You just make a wish?”
He nodded. “On any shooting star, yeah. My parents and brother and I used to stay up really late during the summers when I was small and sleep under the stars so we always had a chance at seeing one.”
“And the wishes you made always came true?”
“No, not really.”
“Then what was the point?”
“Hyung.” Jungkook breathed out a laugh. “Didn’t your parents ever tell you things like that when you were a child that made you believe in magic for a little bit?”
Seokjin’s parents were very serious people, even when he and his brother had been young, and when their father wasn’t off marking planetary territories for months on end and their mother wasn’t trying to raise two boys alone, they didn’t have the energy to help them believe in magic.
“My father always told us stories about worlds beyond ours,” he said after a moment. “Planets where you couldn’t breathe the air around you without a helmet, moons with zero gravity where you had to bounce upon the surface to get anywhere. I suppose that was magic for me, because hearing those stories made me want to visit them when I grew up.”
Jungkook smiled. “That’s really sweet. I’m glad your wish came true.”
Seokjin looked at him. Never in all of this lifetime could he have imagined sitting here with a beautiful boy, to love and hold and experience the endless expanses of the cosmos with. Jungkook was the answer to a wish he hadn’t known he had asked the universe for. “Yeah, it really did,” he said. “I never thought about it like that before.”
“Good thing you have me here then, huh?”
“Yeah, bun. It sure is.”
They sat in silence for a moment then, Bam snoring softly at their feet. Beside him Seokjin could feel Jungkook relax further and further into the couch, and he could feel himself get sleepier as the minutes ticked by. Maybe they could just sleep here tonight –
And then he remembered.
“Jungkook?”
A sleepy “‘oing?” was his reply.
“You said you couldn’t choose just one star to make a wish on, so you made it on all of them. What was it?”
“Oh.” He blinked tiredly before smiling. “It was to stay with you.”
“Ah, Jungkook.” Seokjin could feel a blush working its way up to his ears. “You can’t just say things like that, you know. It’s too much.”
“Not for me it isn’t.” He tightened his arms around his middle. “I don’t want to do anything besides this.”
They had never had this conversation before because the thought of Jungkook leaving him one day terrified him to his core. “Kook,“ he began, “you don’t know that.”
“Yes I do. Epiphany is my home.”
Seokjin swallowed weakly. “Your friends –”
“I can video call them. We can visit once a year.”
“Your family?”
“Hyung, I text Junghyun like a million times a day.” Jungkook looked up at him suddenly. “Unless you don’t want me to stay?”
“Jungkook, oh my god.” Seokjin felt the first trail of the tears that he had been trying to hold back make its way down his cheek as he hugged the boy tightly to him. “Of course I want you here. How you could ever think anything different is beyond me.”
“Well, you keep asking all these questions –”
“Because I don’t want you to wake up one morning and regret this.” Seokjin sniffed as Jungkook reached out to brush away his tears. “I’m not worth all that.”
“You are to me,” Jungkook said firmly. “I fell in love with the stars when I was little and now I get to travel among them every single day. It’s like all those wishes I made when I was younger came true.”
“You really mean that?”
“I do.”
“Even if I keep burning your eggs?”
“Especially if you keep burning my eggs.”
“Well, ok.” Seokjin wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “If you say so.”
“I do,” Jungkook agreed with a grin, and Bam gave a sleepy woof in agreement.
That was all Seokjin ever needed to hear.
“Hey bun?” he said after a moment.
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
“I know,” Jungkook replied. He placed his head back on Seokjin’s shoulder and they both continued to watch the sky above them. There were rounds to make before they went to bed, of course, and Bam would have to have a quick walk, but for this moment it seemed like none of that was important. They had each other because the universe had conspired it to be so.
Maybe Seokjin would have to start wishing on stars if this was what it brought him.