Chapter Text
Reki and Langa were standing in the drugstore, looking a little lost staring at the shelves.
Kojiro had sent them, barely five minutes after stepping in Sia La Luce, when Kaoru complained about a headache for the third time that night.
"Uh, which one do we get?" Reki asked, turning to Langa beside him.
Langa shrugged. "I don't know… aren't painkillers all the same?"
"I don't think so… Cherry didn't say which one we should get, did he?"
"It's this one, slimes." Miya suddenly appeared behind them, pointing at one of the boxes.
"Where did you come from?" Reki asked, as he picked up the box Miya pointed at.
"Cherry sent me after you two, to make sure you buy the right one."
"What?! I can't believe he didn't trust us…"
"And he was right not to." Miya snickered.
"Hey!" Reki replied indignantly. "We were… getting there." He mumbled, moving towards the cashier.
"Please," Miya laughed. "You probably can't even tell the difference between the shampoo and the conditioner."
"Wha- What's that supposed to mean?"
"Have you seen your hair lately?"
"What's wrong with my hair?" Reki pouted, moving his free hand towards it.
"There's nothing wrong with your hair, Reki." Langa defended. "Miya's just being mean."
"Of course you'd say that." Miya rolled his eyes. "Your hair is not doing much better, you know?"
"My…? What's wrong with it?" Langa asked, pouting as well.
"Hey, come on, why are you being so mean to us?" Reki asked. "Is it still about the, um…"
"Yeah… maybe." Miya shrugged.
After being back in their own bodies, Reki decided that they should tell Miya the truth, about the whole body swap thing, and the prank they pulled on him.
Miya was skeptical at first, understandably so. He only believed them after Kaoru confirmed their story. And then, he was mad.
"Come on, man! We said we're sorry, and we offered to do anything you wanted!" Reki whined. "Are you really not letting this go?"
"Hm…" Miya hummed as he tapped on his chin. "I'm still thinking… about what I want from you guys. Something that'll make us even. Then, I'll forgive you."
"Fine…" Reki sighed.
"I mean it, though." Miya said as he turned away.
"What?"
Miya turned his head to say, "About your hair." Then he went to a different aisle.
He didn't actually mean it, he was being purposefully mean to them because he'd just thought of a way to get back to them, and the perfect opportunity just presented itself. He just had to make sure it would work.
Some time later after leaving the store with a package in hand, he texted Koyomi.
- I have a plan.
_
The next morning, Reki stared sadly at his hair as he stood in bathroom looking in the mirror.
He returned to his room and threw himself on the bed beside Langa with a sigh.
"What's wrong?" Langa asked.
"Nothing… stupid Miya." Reki mumbled.
"You're still thinking about what he said last night?"
Reki only nodded, before putting his arm around Langa's back and nuzzling on his chest.
Langa brought his hand up to Reki's hair and started running his fingers through it.
"Your hair is great, love. You know he was just messing with us."
"I guess…" Reki sighed again.
Later, as they were having breakfast, Reki was still thinking about it, and it must have shown on his face, because at some point Koyomi asked him, "What's up with you, bro?"
"Hm?" Reki looked up at her. "Oh, it's nothing…"
"Come on, spill it out. Why are you moping so early in the morning? Langa is right there with you, so I know it's not because of a fight again."
Reki blushed at that.
"So what is it?" Koyomi asked again.
Reki looked at Langa, before turning to his sister again. "Um, well, it's… do you think my hair looks bad?"
Koyomi stifled a laugh behind her hand. "Seriously? It's about your hair?"
"Ugh, shut up."
"It's just that…" Langa stepped in. "Our friend said something, last night. About us both ." He looked at Reki as he said the last word. Then he returned to Koyomi. "I think he was just teasing us."
"Well…" Koyomi said.
"What?" Reki asked, frowning.
"I mean, okay. It's not that it's bad , but… it could use a little hydration. Both of you."
"Really?" Langa asked with a frown as well.
Koyomi hummed in agreement. "You know what? I can actually help with that. Come on." She said as she got up.
"Oh, right now?" Langa looked down at his plate.
Reki laughed, staying in place. "No, it's okay man. Finish your food."
"Okay… I'll just grab some things and you guys come to the bathroom when you're done." Koyomi said, then left for her bedroom.
There, she pulled out her phone and texted Miya.
- We're on.
_
"Okay so, this one is for you." Koyomi handed a bottle to Reki. "And this is for you." She handed another to Langa.
"Um, are you sure about this? They don't look legit." Reki asked, glancing over at the one in Langa's hand as well.
"Oh, it's just because… they're off brand, so it's cheaper."
Reki still looked skeptical.
"But it's great, I promise! I've used it myself." Koyomi insisted.
"Okay… and why can't we just use the same one?"
"Because, dummy, you two have different types of hair. There's different products for each hair type."
"What do you think?" Reki asked Langa.
Langa shrugged. "Makes sense, I guess? I'll do it if you do it."
Reki turned to Koyomi. "Okay, fine." He sighed. "How do we do this?"
"You just… spread it on your hair? Come on, bro. It's not rocket science."
Reki rolled his eyes. "Whatever, if you're not gonna help, then just go."
"Fine." She said, sticking out her tongue after. "Just be sure to coat every last hair." Then she left.
"Okay, how do you wanna do this?" Reki turned to Langa again. "We do our own hair, or each other's?"
"Hm… well, if we do our own, we'll finish at the same time."
"That's true… okay. We'll do our own, and then we'll see if we need help with some part."
Langa nodded. "Sounds good."
"Alright. We'll just… start, then."
And then they proceeded to apply the products on their hairs.
By the time they were halfway done, Reki shouted for his sister.
"Koyomi! Come here!"
"What?" She appeared shortly after. "Oh." Koyomi said after seeing them. She was trying really hard not to laugh.
"Is it supposed to look like this?" Reki asked with concern. The product on his hair was a shade of blue, as the one on Langa's was red.
"Yeah! No, don't worry, it's like that. You're doing great!" Koyomi gave them a thumbs up. "Oh, hang on." She got in and grabbed something from the cabinet. "Here, don't forget to put this on after you're done." She placed two shower caps on the sink.
"Okay…"
"Carry on!" She said as she left again.
Standing close, she waited until they started talking again and, discreetly, she managed to take a picture without them noticing.
Back in her room, she texted Miya.
- omg they're really doing it!
She sent along the picture she just took.
Miya replied right away.
- I can't believe they actually fell for that!
Koyomi: ikr??
Miya: thanks again for helping out
Koyomi: of course! I'll send more pics when I can
Miya: awesome
Then Miya texted someone else.
- Hey old man, I need a favor
_
Back in Reki's bathroom, they had just finished and were now putting on the shower caps.
"Man, what a mess." Reki said as he looked in the mirror. His forehead, his ears, even on his arms there were splashes of the blue product.
He looked at Langa beside him, pretty much in the same condition, but in red.
"You look very cute with that." Reki said, nodding at his head as he got closer to his boyfriend and wrapped his arms around his back.
"Hm, yeah?" Langa replied as he put his arms around Reki's neck. He leaned in and gave him a kiss, then he looked in the mirror. "You're very cute, too. Look, we're the same."
Reki turned to look in the mirror again, and he smiled. "Yeah." Then he frowned, turning to Langa again. "I really hope we didn't just make a huge mistake."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know…" Reki shrugged. "I just feel like there's something weird going on."
"You don't trust Koyomi?"
"Well…" Reki hesitated to answer. "Not… really?"
"Oh… then, why did you agree to do this?"
"Ugh, I don't know!" Reki answered with frustration. "They just got in my head, man…"
Letting go of Langa, Reki reached for his phone inside his pocket after hearing a notification.
"Huh, that's weird…" Reki said after reading the text he just received. "Shadow is challenging me to a beef tonight."
"Just like that, for no reason?"
"Yeah. Should I accept it?"
"Yeah, of course! Why wouldn't you?"
"I don't know…" Reki shrugged, staring down at his phone, uncertain. "You don't think all of this is weird?"
"Well, maybe? But do you really suspect that Shadow is part of some plot or something?"
"I guess not… wait, he's texting again." Reki gaped at the message as he read it. "What the fuck?!"
"What? What'd he say?" Langa asked, coming behind him to look over Reki's shoulder at his phone.
"He called me a coward because I didn't answer!" Reki said angrily, as he started typing his reply.
- that's it, old man! get ready to eat dirt.
"Ah, you two look adorable!" Koyomi laughed as she appeard by the door again. She took another picture, not hiding this time.
"Hey! Delete that, what the hell?"
"Yeah, sure." Koyomi kept laughing.
"Ugh, whatever. How long are we supposed to keep this, anyway?"
"Hm, about thirty minutes, then you can wash it."
"That long?" Langa asked her, then he turned to Reki. "How long has it been?"
"Ten minutes, I think? Come on, let's go to my room, then." Reki stuck out his tongue at his sister as he passed her on the way to his bedroom.
He closed the door behind him as Langa entered, and they sat down on the floor, leaning on his bed.
Reki sighed, and reached for Langa's hand.
"What's wrong? Are you worried about the beef?" Langa asked, squeezing Reki's hand.
"Nah, it's not that. I just can't help feeling like there's something weird going on with all of this."
Langa hummed in acknowledgement.
After a moment in silence, with Langa mindlessly running his fingers on the palm of Reki's hand, he spoke again.
"Reki… are they friends? Miya and your sister, I mean."
"Yeah? I mean, they've been talking for a while now, and… wait" Reki's eyes widened. " Shit , do you think they plotted something together?"
"I mean, I wouldn't put it past Miya to do something… I don't know about Koyomi, though. What do you think?"
"Fuck! No, no way. Shit! You know what?" Reki suddenly got up. "I'm washing this thing off my hair right now." He practically ran into the bathroom, with Langa following close behind.
He stripped until only his underwear was on, barely noticing, or caring, about Langa standing right there, or the door left wide open.
He stepped into the shower and turned the knob. Taking off the cap from his hair, Reki stood right beneath the water, watching as it washed away the product.
After a few moments of scrubbing his hair, and as the water falling down from his head wasn't blue anymore, Reki screamed, in shock and anger, finally realizing that the product he put on his hair was actually dye.
"Oh no, no no no FUCK! Shit shit shit, oh man, oh no…" He was desperately grabbing his hair, his now blue hair, with wide eyes.
"KOYOMI!" He started shouting for his sister. "KOYOMI!" He finally stepped out of the shower, and found Langa staring at him, gaping.
"Go wash that thing off your hair, come on!" Reki started pushing Langa towards the shower, not even thinking that he still had all his clothes on.
"Wait Reki, I-"
"What's wrong no- oh." Koyomi showed up at the door, and started laughing as soon as she saw her brother.
"Oh? That's all you have to say, FUCKING OH?! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO, KOYOMI?"
"I'm sorry, okay! It wasn't me!" She defended. "It was all Miya's idea! He came up with the whole plan and brought me the dye last night."
"But why the fuck did you help him?! You're MY sister!"
"I'm sorry…" She looked genuinely sorry as she apologized, but then she burst out laughing again. "I really am sorry, but come on, it's too funny!"
Reki was left speechless, all he could do at the moment was stare angrily at his sister.
"Oh come on, don't be too mad! It's not permanent, the color will wear off after a few washes."
Sighting, Reki turned to Langa again. "Go wash it off, man! What are you waiting for?"
"Um, well…" Langa looked at Koyomi, still standing by the door.
"Go away!" Reki pushed her out unceremoniously.
Then he closed the door, leaned on it, and slid to the floor.
"This sucks so bad." Reki pulled his legs up to his chest, and put his hands on his face, muffling another scream.
"It'll be okay, Reki." Langa finally stepped in the shower, only in his underwear as well. "You heard her, it'll come off after a few washes."
Reki just grunted, but didn't reply.
_
They stood in Reki's bedroom, after changing into clean, dry clothes, staring in the mirror.
Reki whined, and was about to start complaining again, but Langa spoke first.
"It could be worse, love. It's not so bad."
"How can you say that? Your hair is red !"
"Yes, and yours is blue. We have each other's colors, so yeah, it could be worse." Langa said, smiling softly as he took Reki's hands and pulled him towards the bed.
They sat on the edge, next to each other. Still holding one of Reki's hands, Langa continued. "I think you look cute in blue."
"Really?" Reki asked, blushing.
Langa hummed his agreement. "You look good in everything."
"Langaaa, stop." Reki looked away.
"I mean it!" Langa said with a small laugh. He brought his free hand to hold Reki's cheek, turning his head to face him again. "It'll be okay." He said softly, before leaning in for a kiss.
It only lasted a moment, then Reki rested his forehead on Langa's.
"Man, we're gonna have to go to S like this…" Reki sighed.
"It's alright." Langa said, caressing his cheek. "It can't be worse than when we went with our bodies swapped."
"It really can't." Reki laughed. "That's what got us in this situation in the first place. From now on, we need to remember to never piss off Miya, ever again."
"Yeah." Langa laughed too.
_
Arriving at S, Reki spotted their group already standing there. He stopped, hesitating to move.
Langa grabbed his hand and pulled him along. "Come on, you have a beef to win." He smiled at him.
Reki smiled back, squeezing his boyfriend's hand. "Yeah, I got some clown ass to kick tonight."
"What the fuck?" Shadow was the first to speak once they got closer. He burst out laughing. "When Miya said you guys had a surprise for us, I did not imagine it'd be this."
Miya had a smug look on his face as he looked at them. "This is awesome, thank you for being so dumb ." He quickly took a picture.
"Ugh, yeah yeah, congratulations, you got us." Reki rolled his eyes. "Are we even now?"
"Hm, not quite. You," Miya pointed at Reki. "Still gotta race the old man, here."
"Hey!" Shadow complained.
Miya continued. "And I'm challenging you," He pointed at Langa. "To a beef, a real one this time."
Langa shrugged. "Sure."
"Wait, back it up. So this," Joe said, pointing at their hair. "Was Miya's doing?" He laughed.
"Yeah… payback for that prank." Reki answered.
"I don't know whether to be impressed, or scared of you, kid. How'd you manage to pull this off?" Joe asked, turning to Miya.
"I can't take all the credit. I did have help from the slime's sister."
"Ouch, betrayed by your own blood."
"Yeah well, you won't be hearing from your partner in crime any time soon. Mom grounded her for this." Reki now had a smug smile.
"Really? Shit, so that's why she hasn't been replying."
"Alright, can we get back to what's important here?" Shadow said. "I gotta kick red's ass again. Oh, wait, my bad." He turned to Reki with a smirk. " Blue's ass."
"Shut up, old man! You're gonna kiss the ground tonight. Come on." Reki stormed off, with Shadow following and cursing behind him.
"Shall we head for the finish line?" Cherry asked.
With everyone's agreement, they headed out.
"Wow, the slime is going really fast. He's actually gonna win this." Miya said in awe.
"Don't sound so surprised." Langa said, never taking his eyes off of Reki. "You know he's good, of course he's gonna win."
Miya rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
Still, Miya couldn't help smiling proudly as Reki crossed the finish line first.
"Reki!" Langa shouted excitedly, opening his arms as his boyfriend ran to him.
"I won!" Reki said in Langa's ear, as he jumped to his open arms.
"Of course you did, you're amazing." Langa replied, pulling away to look at him.
Reki had a huge grin on his face as he leaned in to give Langa a kiss.
Pulling away, Reki still had a huge smile. "Your turn now, go on."
"Okay." Langa dove in for another kiss, then finally started heading back to the start.
"Good race, slime." Miya said, before following Langa.
All the while, Shadow was grunting, complaining about his loss.
Another beef had started, which would give Langa and Miya plenty of time to get back.
In the meantime, Reki mindlessly watched on the screen as they waited.
Reki was getting anxious as Langa and Miya approached the finish line.
"It's been a really close race so far, it could be either one at this point." Joe said.
"No, Langa's got this." Reki said with certainty.
They were both going really fast and, as they crossed the finish line, they stumbled off their boards, and rolled on the ground until they stopped.
Reki ran to them, and kneeled beside Langa.
"You guys okay?" Reki asked, moving his gaze from one to the other.
"Yeah." Langa answered with a grunt as he sat up.
"Great." Miya hissed, sitting up and looking down at his scraped knee. "Who won?"
"I don't know, man. It was so close, it looked like a tie."
They finally got up and walked to the rest of their group.
"Hey Miya," Reki said. "Are we even now?"
"Ugh, yeah, we're cool."
"Awesome!" Reki smiled. "Hey, we could check the footage to see who won, right, Cherry?"
"Yes," Cherry nodded. "If you really wanna know."
Langa and Miya looked at each other.
"I don't really care, honestly." Langa shrugged.
Miya hesitated, but eventually he gave in. "Fine, whatever."
"Aw, look at you, being a good sport!" Reki hugged Miya, and started messing with his hair.
"Ugh, get off me, slime!" Miya pushed him away.
"It was fun, right?" Langa asked with a smile.
"I guess…" Miya shrugged.
Reki laughed. "Okay, come on, then. Let's get out of here."
"Wait, Reki." Miya stopped him. "Hm, you know I didn't mean it, right? The things I said. You too, Langa."
Reki grinned. "Yeah, I know. I know you love us." He teased.
"As if." Miya turned his head.
"Aw, come here." Reki hugged him again, and pulled Langa to join them.
"Get off me!" Miya said again.
"Come on, admit it, Miya." Langa joined in on the teasing as well. "You love us."
"Never." Miya replied, trying his best to hide the smile on his face.