Starchild and Moonboy on a Picnic Date

Astra had been told to wait outside the base. A-Vis hadn’t told them anything else, but...that was enough. He was a little bit later than he said he would be, about 5 minutes or so, but soon it became obvious why.

A rather unpleasant looking minivan drove up and awkwardly parallel parked by the sidewalk near the base. A-Vis unfolded out of it, seeming much too tall to have even fit in the driver’s seat. His tutor, Ms. Ruelle, climbed out as well, taking notes. “And that’s another 15 minutes.” As she moved towards the driver’s seat, she paused and looked back at him. “Uh...good luck, Johnny.” She then quickly got into the car and, with the thunk of a violently adjusting driver’s seat, drove off.

A-Vis was, if nothing else, a sight to behold. He was dressed in a heavily patterned short sleeved shirt under a very differently patterned long sleeved shirt and wearing jorts that, since his legs were so long, looked a little more like short shorts than would be ideal. The only typical part of his get up was the mask he wore. “Secret identity” and all that. “Hey, uh, hey Astra! I’m sorry I’m late, Ms. Ruelle said I should drive to get in some minutes! Uh, how are you?”

“Hey A-Vis! Yeah, I’m good. And don’t worry, I haven’t waited very long,” Astra said, not mentioning that it was only because they had spent a lot of time on picking their outfit and had otherwise planned to be ready much sooner than necessary. They were dressed in white skinny jeans that had three thin belts going through it, and a flowery dark blue blouse. Their hair was in their typical fashion, with the top hair tied back into two small buns and the rest flowing down past their neck, but they had decided to let it glitter with tiny specks of starlight like when they adopt their more “hero-costume” form. “What’s up?”

“Wow. You look really cute. I mean, like you always do! Uh, so...I was thinking that we maybe go to-OH CRAP, I FORGOT THE FLOWERS IN THE CAR, I’M SO SORRY, AAA!” A-Vis took a moment to compose themself. “A-uh. Uh. Um, but...uh, I asked, uh, Chitter where I should take you and they thought that maybe I should take you to Camelot park? Does that sound good to, like, start? I know a place we can buy some picnic food there.”

“Thanks!” Astra said with a (literally) glowing blush. “You look great too. Yeah, I noticed the advice you got on Chitter. Our friends on the team are really nice, huh?” They smiled as they recalled how much time they spent just looking at the messages while daydreaming about the date. “Ooh, a picnic sounds fun. I haven’t been to one on Earth yet. And we didn’t really call it a picnic back home either, so maybe I haven’t at all? But yes, I’d love to. Lead the way.” Astra gave A-Vis a beaming smile.

“Oh, and don’t worry about the flowers. They’ll probably still be there when Ruelle, was that her name, comes back, right? I’ll just eagerly await them until then.”

“Uh...yeah! Yeah, that makes sense. You’re smart.”

A-Vis started walking towards the park. They reached out towards Astra’s hand a couple of times, but always pulled back, awkwardly acting like they were reaching to brush down their hair or clothes. “So, uh, yeah, our friends are really great. Even the ones who, uh, don’t like me. Which is weird, but that shouldn’t be what I focus on.” There was a moment of silence, which would have been perfectly fine, but A-Vis clearly didn’t know how to be comfortable in it in the context of a date. “So what’s being a sun god like?”

Astra noticed A-Vis reaching for their hand, but was too nervous to accept before the chance was gone.

“What being a sun god is like? Gosh, well, first you gotta have a sun. And it’s gonna be your sun, so it’s a good idea to build it yourself with your own hands, with some help from family and friends and stuff of course. Then you gotta maintain it and make sure it turns in the sky like it should, and you also have to talk with the other gods of the seasons about how it should go from one day to the other through the year. And all the while you can watch what is going on down in the world. And one day you fall in love with a thief and have a child that is a starlight demi-god.” Astra chuckled a bit. “Since, you know, it is my mom who is the sun god.” Astra knew that it was a mistake a lot of people have made, but they were not particularly fussed about it.

“But to be serious, growing up with my mom, it was pretty much that. Hearing the stories about how the sun was built, getting visits from the seasonal gods, and of course getting to see the whole world from that high up. It was pretty cool. I wonder what I will do, if I manage to become a full-on god as well. Maybe make some new stuff happen on the night sky in my world? I have already got some ideas from the Astronomy Club over in Big High.”

“Oh, sorry! Uh...so suns and stars aren’t, like, the same thing? Not for you? What are stars like then? I want to understand you better! I mean, I’m just a guy, right? I mean...I mean wrong, I’m apparently some kind of stretchy moon boy or something, but the point is I feel like I’m way more boring than you. I wanna...I wanna know what you’re like. And why you would like...and why you’re interested in a world like this.”

It was clear that A-Vis wasn’t being fully coherent or thinking things through. “Oh, hang on just a moment!” There was a boutique little ice cream shop nearby, and A-Vis pulled Astra over to it by their arm. “Okay, yes star stuff, but also what’s your favorite flavor? Mine is definitely vanilla. People call boring things vanilla, but that’s stupid because it’s actually a super complex, unique flavor that-” A-Vis quickly fell into a rant about flavors that lasted most of the line.

Astra let themselves be pulled, and listened attentively to A-Vis’ rant, nodding along the way. “Completely agree, vanilla ice-cream is really good. Especially when it has really good vanilla in it. My fave though gotta be... hmm.” Astra thought for a bit. “Maybe blueberry? Blueberry is really good.” They said, nodding at their choice in favourite.

“And hey, you’re not boring. I’ve never met any cute stretchy moon boys before after all. And even if you weren’t a stretchy moon boy, you’re still unique in a lot of ways and very interesting. Also it’s like, you know...” Astra tried to think of how to best word it, when they got it! “Ah yeah, you know, as the philosopher-warrior Xaxa once said: ‘Even the tiniest frog holds thousands of times more value than the largest and most opulent palace, to the one who lives in the palace and has never seen a frog’. So of course I’m interested in this world, when it has so many new and exciting things to see and hear and touch and feel and know and explore. And it even has a particularly cute stretchy moon boy.” They said, ending with a little wink.

“A-aaah...” Being referred to as “cute” twice in quick succession seemed to have slightly broken A-Vis’ brain. “I-, uh, um...ICE CREAM!” He quickly stepped away and went to make some purchases. After a moment, he came back to give Astra their blueberry Ice Cream, holding a cone of their own with vanilla on it. “Yup! Ice cream! Hahahahahahaha!” He made an attempt at eating it, accidentally getting some on his mask before he remembered to pull it up.

“Um...ahem. Well, uh, let’s keep walking towards the park. But, uh, since you already know, like, the heavens and stuff, when we get there, why don’t we go to the weird pondy bit and see if we can see some frogs? It’s a little late in the fall for them, but we might catch a few still getting ready to hibernate.”

Astra giggled a bit at A-Vis’ nervous mannerisms, but they were also a bit worried. They hoped they weren’t moving too fast for him. “Thanks!” they said, taking the ice-cream. “Yeah, I’d love to see some cute little frogs.”

As they walked further along the street, Astra glanced up at A-Vis’ mask, which still had a small stain on it from the vanilla ice-cream. “So, why did you decide to come as A-Vis instead of Johnny for the date? Not that I don’t like it or anything, and I know you shared that you were going on a date with me as A-Vis on chitter and if anyone saw us that would reveal the whole secret identity thing, but... I don’t know, maybe I just don’t quite get everything about secret identities, but I thought the superhero identity was for like hero stuff, and the regular identity was for like mundane stuff like school and work and, um, dates and stuff? Does it count as hero stuff because of me, or...?”

“I, uh...” A-vis lifted his mask halfway up on his face to bite his ice cream (oh, awful, why does anyone do that?) and lick his lips, clearly giving himself time to think. “I think I did it because you met me as A-Vis. And that’s kind of who you like me as? I’ve never really thought about it very much, but ever since I started doing-...ever since I started being a hero, there’s kind of a lot of me. A lot of me’s. And I sometimes have trouble knowing who I should be when. Do you ever feel like that?”

The two of them reached the park, and A-Vis directed Astra towards the pond. It was fairly placid, though koi fish and the occasional turtle could be seen swimming beneath. “I think there’s a frog over there!” A-Vis pointed to what looked, to Astra, like an unassuming patch of green something.

“Ooh, where? Is it hiding in that weird... is that like moss?” Astra said, looking at said patch of green.

“But uh, no I don’t think I’ve ever felt like that. I guess I’m pretty lucky that I don’t need to keep different parts of myself separate and secret. I mean, I get why you, and like Verve and some others, do it. But hey,” they said turning to face A-Vis, “I also really liked talking to you at the club tryout at my high-school, when you were Johnny. There’s no ‘you’ that I like more than the other ‘you’. And if that thing you said on the train earlier in the month actually was a double-bluff disguised as sarcasm, and you have a secret spy ‘you’ as well, I will probably be fine with that one as well. Oooh, hey, if you want to go on a date as Johnny some time, maybe I can disguise myself with shapeshifting! That way, we won’t raise as much attention.” Astra smiled excitedly, gliding over the whole spy-thing like it was no big deal.

“U-uh-buh...um-” A-Vis stammered for a moment, clearly shocked by...well, a lot of that. After a moment, he spat out, “THE FROG IS THE SAME COLOR AS THE MOSS LEMME GRAB IT!”

A-Vis transformed into big boy mode, and Astra was able to see how it affected clothes not really made for it. He was very careful, slowly snaking his arms and legs out of the fabric to avoid tearing it, but it couldn’t help but strain before hanging helplessly from his even skinnier form. He kept bits of his body at specific angles to make certain the even more missized clothes still clung to his frame, then slowly reached over and lifted up something on the other side before shrinking back down. When he got back to his usual size, his outfit was a rumpled mess, but still all where it belonged. “Look, here!” A-Vis held a frog gently in their hand and presented it to Astra. The frog’s whole body looked like moss, and it’s face looked severely unamused.

“Aww, so there *was* a little friend hiding in there. It’s so cute!” Astra gently pets its back with their finger. “Gosh, it’s amazing how you could spot this little fella from here. It was like super camouflaged.”

“Yeah, I could kinda see, like...I mean, it’s not warm blooded, so it wasn’t glowing at all, not like you, but it was still making little movements, and I could see the yellow of its eyes.” A-vis pet the frog too, though his petting was more like poking and it hopped away. “Oop! Uh, there it goes.” It fell into the water with a bloop.

Astra giggled. “Bye, little friend,” they said, giving a little wave in the general direction that the frog disappeared.

“Glowing, like as infrared light and stuff? Do I glow more than others, then? I mean, it’s kinda chilly today, and I have my internal light heating me up and stuff, so probably, right?”

“Oh yeah, definitely. You’re, like, super bright all the time. I can only see a little infrared light, my color spectrum is just a little wider than most peoples. But it means that warm things kinda glow a little for me. You’ve also got UV light coming off you too, so to me, you glow some colors that other people can’t see.” A-Vis took a deep breath, cleared their throat, then spoke up while looking away. “They’re, uh...they’re really pretty. And unique. I like it, and I’m sorry everyone can’t see it.”

"Oh. Wow, um, thanks. I didn't even know I did that." Astra's blush, that had been lightly glowing all this time, started shining much much brighter. "That's kinda pretty cool that you can see stuff like that." The small motes of light glistening in their hair started multiplying and even started lightly floating gently off.

After a gentle moment of silence where neither really knew what to say, Astra finally spoke. “Sooo... picnic food, you said?”

“Oh! Right! Uh, we went a bit different from where I thought we would, so the-the cart’s kinda...” A-Vis gestured vaguely in a direction. “I’ll go get it! You can get set up somewhere nice around here, I’ll see you.” He pulled his mask all the way up so Astra could see him wink at them, though the rest of his face clearly didn’t know what to do while winking. He then ran off in the direction he gestured at.

"Ok. See you!" If anyone thought Astra's smile and blush couldn’t glow any brighter, A-Vis' wink just proved them very wrong.

Astra stood for a couple of moments, just shining in joy, just looking in the direction A-Vis ran off to, before they shook themself out of it and went to look for a spot. “This is pretty nice,” they said to themself. They had found a nice place under a lovely tree whose leaves had turned into lovely shades of yellow and orange. Astra weren’t quite sure what to set up with, so they just sat down on the ground beneath the tree, or rather, floated a few inches above the ground so they didn’t get dirt on their white jeans, and then waited for A-Vis.

After a few moments, A-Vis found Astra again. “Oh wow, you found a really beautiful place. Uh, I went over to the food cart. This isn’t exactly, like, traditional-traditional picnic food, but picnic food i’ve seen on TV is, like, sandwiches and fruit and stuff. So I got us some grilled cheeses and a bunch of, um...” He held up a stick with a large number of various fruits in various states of cookedness. “..fruit kebabs. I don’t know what these are. But anyway-” He sat down next to Astra, handing them what he picked up for them. “I’ve already had a lot of fun here! I, uh...you know. I hope you did too.”

“Oh thanks!” Astra said, gladly grabbing what A-Vis brought. “Mhm, I’m really enjoying this date too. You know, I was actually really nervous about asking you out. But I’m glad I did. It has been super enjoyable.”

“I’m, uh...I’m really glad you did too. Thank you for that.” A-Vis blushed and pulled his knees up to his chest. “Dating always seemed really scary and weird and confusing, but you’ve made it fun for me. So...so yeah. I still don’t quite know what to do, but I feel like that’s maybe okay?”

Astra giggled. “Yeah, same. I guess it is just like hanging out, just with, ya know,” Astra looked up at A-Vis, with a big blush themselves, “with different kinds of feelings.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” A-Vis lightly bit their knee. “I...I dunno if I’m feeling those feelings yet. I’m feeling nervous and excited and fun, but I don’t know what ‘different feelings are.’ I haven’t quite yet? Or maybe I don’t? I don’t know. But I like it. I wanna keep trying it. Is that okay? If I don’t know?”

It was clear that they were very nervous and unpacking something they didn’t quite know how to deal with. Their eyes were hidden under their mask, so Astra couldn’t fully tell what they were feeling.

“Yeah, of course it’s ok. I wasn’t like expecting you to be hugely in love with me already or anything, otherwise I would be very impressed at your ability to hide it.” Astra nibbled on their fruit kebab as they scooted closer to A-Vis. “So I’m really happy you want to give it a chance, and give me a chance, and keep trying. We will just have to see what happens, and that’s ok.”

After chewing and swallowing one of the fruit-bits, Astra spoke up again. “Oh, and please promise that you will tell me if I move too fast at any point? I, you know, have not really dated anyone before either, most of what I know comes from what my parents have told me, and from what I can tell, they weren’t exactly the types to take it slow.” Astra giggled.

“Yeah! Yeah, of course! And-and you promise to tell me if something’s wrong too, right? People need to say when something’s wrong. It goes bad if they don’t.” Even through the mask, Astra could tell A-Vis looked away when they said that. They quickly recovered though. “And...uh...this isn’t a very romantic sentiment, but whenever we’re fighting together, I’ve gotta make sure to take care of civilians first and stuff. I’ll try to protect you too, but not any more than I protect anyone else. It’s...you know.” He seemed a little embarrassed saying this. “Where I’ve been, couples aren’t allowed to go on missions together, and I don’t want to stop going on missions together. But it’s a little complicated.”

“Huh, really? It’s the other way around where I’m from. I thought everybody knew couples are usually better at kicking ass when working together. I mean, just look at Tay and Ellen!” Astra said excitedly, but then switched to a more serious tone as they thought about what A-Vis said. “But, yeah, if that’s what you feel you need to do, I get it... I think. And, you know, I’m pretty tough, being a demi-god and all. I am not gonna be the one in the most need of protection on missions anyway.” As the serious tone turned to slight bragging, they tried to smile reassuringly at A-Vis.

“Oh. Okay. Yeah, you’re very tough. You’re very very tough.” A-Vis sighed with some relief. “Oh, right, they’re, like, a couple too, right? Uh...” He chewed a bit on his fruit kebab. “...In my home, they said it was dangerous for couples to be ‘on the job’ together. They’d be more focused on each other than on saving citizens or doing the job right. And...and if they had to choose between what was right and the person they loved...that’s a choice they couldn’t make them make.”

“Oh yeah, that makes sense.” Astra finished their fruit kebab, and then continued. “I guess I will just have to keep it in mind, and then we can go from there?”

“Yeah.” A-Vis smiled. “Thank you for understanding. I’m glad you’re a hero too.”

Astra returned the smile with a giggle and a nod.

A-Vis and Astra were walking back to the Big Team base. They had finished the picnic, where after their heartfelt conversation, they had continued to talk about this and that and other things. It had gotten a little late in the afternoon before they decided to finish the picnic.

“So, uh, I know we’ve already said this to each other, but I did really have a lot of fun on this date,” Astra said with their blush still glowing faintly beneath their cheeks.

“I did too! I’m, uh...I’m really glad you asked me. Thank you for doing that. I don’t think I would have been brave enough if it was the other way around. Do you, uh...do you want to do it again?”

Astra nodded, brightly smiling. "Mhm, I would really like that."

They thought for a bit. "Maybe I could plan the next one? Find a cool movie or something? It'd be fun to have a movie-date."

“That sounds fantastic! I’d love t-” A-Vis was interrupted mid word by a loud honk, and he turned around to see Ms. Ruelle’s minivan. “I-I’m so sorry, I gotta...” He ran off. Astra could see him talking to someone in the driver’s seat for a moment. After a few seconds he ran back, holding something in his hands. “I-Ms. Ruelle br-uh, you, it...” He held out a bouquet of flowers, slightly wilted from their time in the car. They were orange and purple, though their petals were slightly plain. “I picked these ‘cause...um, oh man. This might be a little weird. But...’cause they have these patterns that I can see with UV light. Like, uh...like you.” He smiled awkwardly and held them out.

Astra gently accepted the bouquet. Their blush were glowing bright, their smile wide with joy, and small starlight motes were spontaneously appearing around them, as they looked at the flowers in their hands and held them close. “Thank you. This is really... really really sweet. And cool. And nice. And, um, yeah, thank you so much.”

Astra looked up at A-Vis. “So, I’ll see you around, I guess? And I’ll text you about the next date, and um. Yeah, thank you again for the date and you know, stuff,” they said taking a little step forward and floating up, arms out for a hug.

A-Vis was visibly a bit nervous for what Astra was going to do, but when they floated up for a hug, he smiled and wrapped his arms around them. For how angular his body was, he was a surprisingly gentle hugger. “Yeah! Yeah, I’ll see you! Thank you!” And with that, he runs back to the car, slowly folding himself into the driver’s seat.

“Bye!” Astra yelled while waving. They were still floating, both literally and metaphorically of joy.

In the car, A-Vis was in the passenger's seat, mask off and slowly driving back towards Ms. Ruelle’s apartment. His tutor sat stiffly next to him, writing things down in her note book. After a few moments of awkward silence, she cleared her throat. “So, Johnny. Keep your eyes on the road, but...tell me, how did it go?”

Johnny looked confused, but kept his head straightforward. “How did what go?”

“Your date. I’d like to hear about it. If you want to tell me.”

When they came to a stoplight, Johnny looked at Ms. Ruelle in confusion. On her face, he could see some discomfort, and she quickly demanded he focus on the road again. After a moment, he said “Well, I went to the park with them and bought them some food. It was...it was really nice.”

“Good! Good. I’m...I’m glad to hear that. You could have taken that turn better.”

As he drove the rest of the way home, A-Vis did their best to focus on the road, but even so, they couldn’t stop themselves occasionally thinking back and smiling.