Chapter Text
Miya stared with his eyes squinted at Reki. "So. You're telling me that you have a crush on Langa, and you want to find a way to show that you like him? Why don't you just, oh, I don't know, tell him?"
"WH-PSHH-Miya, I can't just tell him" Reki sputtered, trying not to choke on the last of his slushie. "I...need to test the waters first! See if he likes me back, you know?" He rambled as he cupped the soothingly cold slushie with both hands. It was bright red, just like his hair. "Honestly, I don't know how someone as amazing as him would like me back..."
"Reki! No more of that talk!" Miya chided, slapping Reki on the shoulder, earning a little "Ow!" from Reki. "Besides, I'm sure that Langa would love to join you in getting slushies the same color as his hair. And then getting a purple tongue," he smirked.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Reki asked. He pulled himself up from behind the counter of the skate shop and got about halfway to the trashcan before the lighting bolt of realization struck him. "MIYA!" he spun around and yelled, absolutely as red as his hair. To this, Miya's laughter echoed through the small shop in mischievous waves. Honestly. How was Reki so dumb to not notice the way Langa looks at him? The way Langa talks to him? The way Langa only does his best when Reki's watching?
"Miyaaaa! I'm looking for advice here!" Reki whined, throwing his cup at Miya, but failing miserably. It seems there was a reason why Reki got into skating instead of something like baseball.
Before he could respond, an idea hatched in Miya's agile brain--an entertaining one at that. Recently, things were getting a bit boring in his life. Langa and Reki were the same old pining lovers not wanting to ruin the friendship, Joe and Cherry were always fighting (with words and tongues), and Adam was. Well. Adam. But, if Miya could stir up a little chaos--well, not necessarily chaos--but some fun, it would keep him entertained. And what was a better idea than using Reki and Langa as his guinea pigs? He could finally get them together and spice up his life at the same time. All he'll have to do is suggest Reki do dumb things--but not too dumb--in the name of flirting with Langa. Like cheesy pickup lines or something. It won't cause any damage to their relationship, and it would cause Miya to laugh. Seems like a win-win, right? So, operation Silly Renga--(Rengi? Langrek?)--was a go.
"You know what...I do have some ideas," Miya started slyly.
Reki's face practically lit up at those words. "Really?! Oh, thank you so much, dude!" He scurried back to behind the counter and plopped himself down, hugging his knees to his chest. "So. Whaddya got?"
“You could start with some pickup lines,” Miya began, attempting to stifle his laughter. He was gonna have to get a lot better at acting if he wanted to keep this up. Putting on a fake smoulder and sexy voice, he continued, “Like, ‘Hey, Langa. Are you from Tennessee? ‘Cause you’re the only ten I see’ or something like that.”
"Is Tennessee in Canada?" Reki cocked his head like a golden retriever and questioned. "Langa's from Canada."
"Yes, yes, I know your snowy boyfriend's from Canada. Practically everyone in S knows he's from Canada," Miya responded, aloof, not even giving a second thought to calling Langa Reki's 'Snowy boyfriend'. Reki, on the other hand, gave much more than two thoughts about it--probably a million at once, all thinking of doing "boyfriend things" with Langa--before he emergency cocooned himself into his hoodie and laid down on the ground in the fetal position. Except not like a fetus. More like a...giddy schoolgirl kicking and giggling.
"Miyaaaaa!!!! He's NOT my boyfriend!!" Huh. He really is that down bad if he has that visceral of a reaction, Miya thought.
"Oops. Slip of the tongue," Miya very sarcastically delivered. It was so palpable, the smell was just radiating off of his person like an aura. "Anywho, I'm not sure if Tennessee's in Canadia or whatever. But it doesn't matter. All that matters is your delivery." Yes. Delivery. For the sake of romancing Langa. Totally not for the sake of Miya's amusement.
"Delivery? How should I say them?" Reki asked innocently. The rays of afternoon sunlight illuminated Miya's face like he was Reki's savior. Which, he...somewhat was.
"Go big or go home," he stated. "Keep eye contact. Put on a smooth, sexy, prince charming voice. Speak slowly. Do you know what 'bedroom eyes' are?"
"...Bedroom...eyes?" Reki echoed, very confused. Why would somebody have a pair of eyes for when they go into a bedroom?
"...Never mind. Doesn't matter," Miya quickly recovered. How does this guy not know what bedroom eyes are? he thought, regaining his composure. Before the mischievous little kitty-boy could continue, Reki's boss, Shokichi Oka, walked into the suddenly small-feeling skate shop. "Mr. Oka!" Miya yelped and shot up. If he was caught giving Reki shitty flirting advice, the boss would definitely ruin Miya's plan. Which could not happen. Because Miya needed entertainment.
"Are you boys working?" He asked, half-amused, already knowing that they were not working.
"Uh...totally!" The redhead lied, his voice cracking like a middle school boy's.
To this, Miya stifled a laugh. "I'll send you the rest later," he leaned over and whispered in Reki's ear. "And remember. Delivery."
'*•.¸♡ ♡¸.•*'
Reki shifted uncomfortably in his sweat. And seat. Rapidly bouncing his right leg up and down, he anxiously thought, why is it suddenly so hard for me to talk to Langa?? I’ve always talked to him so casually. Yeah. “Causally.” If you count casual as ignoring that funny feeling in your chest when your crush best friend does that charmingly enlightening smile. Why is it a problem now? He’s just my bro! Yeah (x2). Bros. As if bros look at each other that way. No homo, by the way. Reki’s attention slowly drifted to the quaint spring outside the science lab’s window. He was lucky enough to get a seat next to a window—otherwise, he would spend his whole science classes staring at Langa. Either way, he wasn’t staring nor paying attention to the teacher, who was blabbing on about something to do with density. He’d just get Langa to explain it to him later.
As if Langa could read his mind, Reki felt a bashful tip-tap on his shoulder from the blue-haired snowboarder. “Reki, you should pay attention,” Langa whispered, “Mr. Kinoshita is about to explain the partner project we’re gonna do.”
Reki blushed. “Alright, fine, you caught me…” Partner project. They were gonna do a partner project. Which would also mean an opportunity to use those pickup lines on him!
For the rest of the lecture, Reki’s mind could only focus on one thing: romancing Langa. Here’s how it would go: Reki and Langa would partner up, (obviously), and Langa would start setting up and explaining the project. Then, as Langa would be explaining, boom! Reki catches him off-guard, and woos him with the first pickup line. From there, the cycle would repeat, and it would go smooth as butter. Prepping himself for the first step, Reki discreetly pulled out his phone and opened his messages with Miya to review the pickup lines one last time. When Reki was practicing the pickup lines to himself in the mirror, there was always one particular line that had him stumped:
"If we were chromosomes, you'd be my homologous pair."
homo...what? Reki had thought, squinting at his phone as if that would be of any help. "Eh. I'll just wing it," he had told himself in the moment. However, now he was starting to fret--batting his eyes to Langa, who was very intently listening to the mind-numbing lecture, Reki had to swallow hard. What if he made a mistake in front of Langa and he ended up looking like an utter idiot instead of a smooth prince charming? Defeated, he lightly slammed his head down on his desk, making sure to slow down as he reached the humbling surface so he wouldn’t make a noise.
The rest of the lecture had flew by when Reki was brought back to Earth with the beautiful familiar voice of his crush bro. “Reki, it’s time to get to work. I'll go get our materials"
"Ah-alright!" Reki bashfully hummed. Now's almost the time!, he thought, jumping up out of his seat and standing awkwardly waiting for Langa to come back. As the familiar footsteps of his "friend" came closer, Reki clenched his hands and could feel the sheer amount of sweat building up on them. If he was planning on holding hands with Langa any time soon, he would definitely need to stop that, because who likes sweaty palms?
Interrupting Reki's overthinking as he always does, Langa began explaining the project they had to do. It was strange--when it was anyone else talking about it, Reki would rather watch paint dry. But, when it was Langa talking about it? He could listen for hours. Get lost in his soothing voice. His pleasingly wonderful eyes. His exquisite physique. His--Shit! I'm doing it again. I can't keep going like this. Unknown to him until this very moment, Reki was checking out his "best friend"--a common occurrence Whenever Langa was talking.
"Alright. Ready to start?" Langa asked. Oh, if only he knew what catastrophe was about to unfold.
"Yeah!" Reki quickly responded. Maybe a bit too quickly. "But, uh, actually, first, I wanted to ask you a question..." twiddling his thumbs, he trailed off, unable to face Langa's piercingly sharp yet beautiful gaze.
Langa hummed. "What's up?"
Alright! Let's do this! I can do this!
Reki cleared his throat. "Uh-uh...are...are you from Tennessee?...'cause...you're the only ten I see!"
At first, Langa giggled. A small giggle. Upon seeing Reki's confused expression, he fully burst-out laughing. What?! Did-did I say something wrong? Reki immediately panicked, his eyes widening. Shouldn't this be the part where Langa falls head over heels for me?!
A good ten seconds and a couple stares from their classmates passed by until Langa regained his composure, his face slightly red. "Reki...Tennessee's in the United States, not Canada..."
FUCK.
Now it was Reki's turn to blush. Swallowing hard, he replied, "...Oh! psssht, I knew thaaaat..." (He did not, in fact, know that.)
"Anything else, or should we get started?" Langa asked.
"Yeah! Uh, you know...life without you would would be like a broken pencil...totally pointless...!" Internally slapping himself and accepting the whiplash, he thought, God, that didn't even make sense!
But apparently, to Langa, it did. If you were there, you could see the gears turning in his head, each clink and clank changing his facial expression. By the time that those gears were turning alive and well, the light pink growing on his face was obvious to everyone in the room. (That is, everyone except Reki.)
"Thanks, Reki. You mean a lot to me too."
The redhead's mind went blank. Langa had just said that he meant a lot to him. I mean a lot to him! Oh, and that smile when he said it, and his eyes, and--No! Not the time! "Ahaha, no problem bro! oh yeah, and one more thing..." Alright, time for the homoluguiwhsoae chromosomes one! The big finale!
"Hm?"
"If we were chromosomes, we'd be a homog-homugul-homiegul...homo..." Shit, shit, shit! Goddamnnit Miya, what the fuck is a homoewohofe chromosome?!
Langa laughed, a sonorous sound full of fondness. "Do you mean a 'homologous pair'?"
Reki, now very red in the face, nodded pathetically. "...Let's just do the project. Forget this ever happened, please?"
"Sure," Langa smiled. Reki was gonna have to scrub his mind clean of that smile if he ever wanted to sleep again.
'*•.¸♡ ♡¸.•*'
Miya slammed his head on the skate shop's familiar counter. "What the fuck is radical form??" he mumbled, frustrated. "And why does math have to be so fucking hard??"
Before he could think, "That's what she said," the front door's chime echoed throughout the small, humble shop. In an effort to make himself presentable, Miya promptly shot his head right back up. Surprisingly, there wasn't a customer at the door--it was Langa standing there and awkwardly fidgeting with his hands. Averting his eyes, he started, "Uh, Miya...can I talk to you?"
Miya blinked. And blinked. And blinked. "Uh...sure? Is this something serious?" This wasn't like Langa at all. "I mean-not that I'd care at all--"
It was just strange occurrence after strange occurrence. Like a shy schoolgirl, Langa giggled--giggled!--and blushed--blushed! "No, Miya, it's not like that." He approached Miya's shocked figure and sat himself down behind the counter.
"...Okay? Spill," Miya prompted. What was making Langa this...giddy? Radical form could wait.
Langa crossed his legs, hands on his knees. "Well...I think I have a crush on Reki."
Miya's jaw dropped.
It worked.
Oh Shit.