2 rapid moving sudden halt and combine

My son and I were looking to see if anyone was popping fireworks. We live outside of the city and the country and the view we have to our south is nothing but ocean. However, on the northeast side of the sky we can see hobby airports airplanes every night. All the time. We're pretty used to saying airplanes. However, that night when we were looking my son pointed out two solid balls that were oranges yellow. They were coming down and the direct northern sky side by side and then stopped rapidly. They began to fly around each other and then one absorbed the other and started fading in and out. It finally disappeared so we went inside for a little while. About 15 minutes later one of them was back. The other one split from it and then both of them went out.