Chapter Text
It was like time froze, Glenn and Eloise standing in the doorway, cold wind blowing in, Langa lying on top of Reki, everyone’s eyes caught on the other.
“Fuck!” Langa’s strangled voice broke the silence. He pulled himself back, angling his shirt down as fast as he could while Reki jumped off the table, his blush as red as his hair, scrambling around for his shirt.
“Langa…” Glenn was never one to be lost for words, but Langa could see his brain running 10,000 scenarios and not one of them computing.
Thankfully, Eloise got her bearings.
“Hey Reki? How about you and I go to the ski lodge for a drink eh? They have this killer hot chocolate with cinnamon.”
Reki blinked at her, pulling his shirt even lower, afraid to show any excess skin. He looked at Langa, who gave him a soft smile. “Go. I’ll meet you after.” Langa reached down, squeezing Reki’s free hand and giving him a gentle push in Eloise’s direction. Reki grabbed his coat from the door, mumbling “Sorry,” as he passed Glenn and ran out the cabin door. Eloise bit her lip and muttered “Sorry!” before slamming the door behind her.
Glenn and Langa stood alone in the wooden cabin. The breeze had drifted into the cabin, causing a chill to work its way up Langa’s spine while he stared his uncle in the eye.
“Langa? What are you doing?” Glenn’s mouth flapped like a fish as he struggled to find the words.
“What am I doing?” Langa’s fists curled, his nails tearing at the palm of his hand as he clenched tighter. “What are you doing?”
“Hey buddy, I don’t think I need that kind of attitude from you—”
“I’m not your buddy—”
“Especially,” Glenn cut him off “when I paid for your entire trip to come here for your birthday, only to find out you were using it as an excuse to shack up with some boy toy from—”
“Don’t.” Langa’s voice was quiet, but it cut deep, icy venom pouring from his veins to his words, “talk about him like that.”
Glenn flinched, staring at Langa like he had never seen him before. “Langa.”
“Don’t.” Langa hadn’t moved an inch, hadn’t stirred, hadn’t given Glenn the satisfaction since he came into the cabin but his jaw was beginning to clench, the anger rising in his gut.
Glenn stared at him and uttered “Your father would be ashamed of you.”
Langa felt like he had been slapped, hard. He lost his balance and the anger he had been trying to keep at bay broke through the dam he had built. “What did you say?”
“Langa, you have so much ahead of you, so many opportunities and you’re throwing them away for some guy you just met? You could be a pro athlete! You have the potential; you just need to make the effort. Oliver understood that, he threw away his own chance at going pro, he didn’t want you lose out. He wouldn’t want you throwing away your dreams for someone you barely know.”
“First of all,” Langa took a step forward, and it’s like his whole body filled the room as his voice cut through Glenn like a knife, “Don’t you ever talk about my father like that again. He loved me. He loved Mom. He loved us. He wanted me to be happy, and unlike you he actually asked if I wanted to go pro. I told him no. He accepted that. You’re the one who can’t move on. You bring me out here and try to steamroll me with promises of Canadian National teams and bringing a scout to see me? What even was that? If you had asked me, I might have been polite, but you just had to have your own way. You don’t listen Glenn. You never do. I’m not moving back to Canada. Okinawa is my home now. With Mom. With Reki. I found friends, a new family, I love skateboarding, my life is there. I didn’t let any dream go. I found a new one. I’m not throwing away my dream Glenn, I’m throwing away yours.”
Glenn tried to speak and Langa cut him off, taking another step forward to close the gap. If Langa didn’t know better, he would think that Glenn looked scared.
“Secondly, you don’t get to talk about mother. You’re the reason she left Canada in the first place! You made her feel like an outsider and reminded her she was one constantly. You couldn’t even bother making the effort--”
“Hey now!”
“What?” Langa laughed. “Mom and Dad were married for 18 years and you didn’t pick up any Japanese? Didn’t even try?”
“I mean…Nanako always just spoke English…”
“To make it easier for you!” Langa spat. “It’s always about you Glenn, isn’t it? What you want, what you need? She even gave you the house in the end just so you would leave her alone. She tried, she tried so much, to make an effort with you and you just threw it back in her face. And then Dad died and she was alone, and you made it about you. You lost your brother, but I lost my Dad and she lost the love of her life. Can’t you understand that?”
Tears were threatening to spill from Langa’s eyes, but he held them in as much as he could, words spilling out of him, his dam broken.
“Langa, I didn’t mean to…”
“I know!” Langa threw his hands in the air in exasperation. “But you also didn’t try. You didn’t try to help Mom. You only thought about yourself. You’ve always been blindsided. Dad used to joke that you were like a racehorse focused on a singular goal, steamrolling ahead. You did that with him, you did that with Eloise until she gave up skiing, you tried to do that with me, but you never ask. You just demand.”
Glenn stared, horrified, while Langa, usually silent, had said more words in the past five minutes that Glenn had heard him utter in 19 years. “And you know what’s worse? I know it’s because you care. You care so hard about your family. I just wish you had thought to include Mom in that bracket.”
Langa took a deep breath, his shoulders shaking and stared Glenn directly in the eye.
“And Reki’s not just some guy I met. He’s not a boy toy, he’s not a whim. He’s the best person I have ever known. He is kindness and compassion, he taught me there was joy in life and that it was worth living. He brought colour into my life again when everything was grey.”
Langa’s breath hitched. “He’s my best friend. And I love him.”
The words floated out of Langa’s mouth before he could stop them. A part of him wanted to catch it, keep it safe and tucked away, a precious jewel to be protected. But another part watched it enter the world and everything seemed brighter in its wake.
“You’re…in love with him?”
Langa looked at Glenn, who stared at him in disbelief and just shrugged, matter of factly. “Yes, I am.”
And the Glenn did something Langa didn’t expect. He grabbed Langa and hugged him, squeezing him tight.
“That’s great! He seems like a sweet kid. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to get to know him better. I’m sorry for not knowing about your life. I’m sorry for being so focused that I ended up cutting people out. I’m sorry about Nanako. Oliver loved her so much, and when she came around, I lost my brother and I suppose I was jealous. But he loved her, so I love her. I’m just not good at seeing the bigger picture.”
Langa didn’t know what to do, but the tears that had been threatening to make appearance finally come through. Glenn and Langa hugged for a while, before breaking apart.
“You know, I lied before.”
“About?”
“Oliver. He would never be ashamed of you for hooking up with someone in a cabin. It’s something he would have done. In fact, that’s how I was first introduced to your Mom…”
“Gross.”
Reki and Eloise landed at the Ski lodge. The long counter was dressed in fairy lights, every table and chair adorned in white silk and the glow of the roaring fire emanated off every inch of bar.
Reki felt numb. He followed Eloise, as she dragged him by the arm, to a spot at the bar counter. He sat on the stool, spun around and flopped his head onto the counter with a sickening thud. Eloise rubbed his back and beckoned the bar man.
“Two tequilas.” She said. Reki raised his arm, lifted his fingers and muttered “Each.”
The bar man came back shortly and Reki pried himself away from his wallowing spot to down the shooter. It burned his throat but didn’t take the memory away. After the second shot, Reki felt a bit buzzed, but he didn’t get the same high he did as when he kissed Langa…
“Ugh” Reki groaned, hitting his head down on the counter again. Eloise yelped. “Dude, do you want a concussion or something?”
“Sorry. Just hoping I spontaneously combust, that’s all. Nothing to worry about.”
She laughed “Don’t worry, Dad has caught me doing a lot worse than whatever the two of you had planned on top of that table.”
Reki’s groan was loud enough for the bar man to pop by with another round. Eloise ordered them both hot chocolates for good measure.
“Reki, c’mon,” Eloise lifted his limp form off the bar and grabbed him by the shoulders. “It’s going to be okay. These things happen.”
“Do they?”
“Maybe not with that much of an audience,” she allowed and Reki’s ears went hot to the touch. “But it’ll be okay.”
“Langa will be so mad. He was already freaked over what happened on the hill.”
“Yeah, Dad told me he brough a scout to see Langa.”
“Without telling Langa.”
“He didn’t tell him?” Eloise grabbed a tequila and slammed it down. “Same old Glenn. All action, no asking. I have warned him so many times. It’s part of the reason I gave up. Well, that and my complete lack of natural talent.” She laughed and Reki couldn’t help but grin.
“I feel so bad.”
“Don’t. Dad was just in shock. Langa was always the golden boy, but he also had literally no interest in anyone before. You must be special.” She punched him in the arm.
Reki felt himself soften. Partially because of the tequila but mostly he was just happy to know they weren’t mad or upset at what happened. He also didn’t know what would have happened if they hadn’t shown up…
The hot chocolates appeared before them, creamy chocolate, loaded with marshmallows and topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Reki pulled himself out of the what ifs and stared at the goblet in awe.
“Taste it,” Eloise urged. “It’s better than…well, whatever you two were about to do.” Reki groaned and took a big gulp. It was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted and the spicy after taste warmed him thoroughly.
But she was wrong.
But nothing could ever beat Langa.
Langa met them an hour later, Glenn following in pursuit. Langa’s smile widened when he saw Reki, his face covered in a cream moustache, laughing with Eloise. Reki spotted him and waved them over and Langa felt his chest tighten, like it had so many times before, but now he had a name for it.
Love.
Glenn marched ahead of Langa and stood in front of Reki. Langa noticed Reki tense, before Glenn grabbed him in a massive hug and spun him around. Reki was perfectly still, staring at Langa, his eyes pleading with him to help and Langa just laughed.
“Glenn, can you leave him down?”
“I just want to welcome him to the family.”
Glenn turned to Eloise and whispered something and she grinned, whispering back in his ear.
Glenn cleared his throat and very carefully managed to say
“はじめまして
Hajimemashite”
Langa paused and Reki cocked a head, not pointing out the slight mispronunciation, but appreciating the thought. “Nice to meet you too, Glenn. Thanks for having me.” Reki responded in English and Glenn laughed.
“El, would you mind giving me some lessons?”
“Sure thing, Dad. We’ll have you fluent in no time.”
Langa sidled up behind Reki, wrapping his arm around his waist and cuddling him. He pressed a kiss against the crown of his head and Reki traced circles with his thumb n the back of Langa’s clasped hands.
“You okay?”
Langa smiled. “Better now you’re here.”
The rest of the trip went much smoother. Reki was even closer to mastering an Ollie and he and Eloise were now having races down the slope while Glenn and Langa began to make peace. It wasn’t perfect.
Sometimes when something is broken it can be hard to put it back together. The pieces will never fit back in the same way, but maybe something better and more beautiful came come from the ruins of what was.
After the two weeks were up, Glenn had organised a trip to Okinawa that October and promised he would get in touch with Nanako to host a family reunion, hoping to mend bridges. Langa got a text from his mother, with many exclamation marks, asking what had happened on his trip, but he just smiled and kept the details to himself.
Reki and Langa waited on their plane to Tokyo after the two weeks were up, watching the sun begin to rise through the window of the airport lounge.
“I guess we’re leaving our Canadian bubble.” Reki said, tightening the axel nuts of his skateboard during their wait time. Langa sat next to him, watching him work.
“Yeah.”
Langa turned to Reki, placing an arm gently on his and uttering words he had been holding in since that night in the cabin. “Did you mean it?”
“Did I mean what?” Reki poked his tongue into his cheek as he dragged the mini wrench tighter on his board.
“When you said you would move here with me?”
Reki stopped an turned to Langa, cocking his head to the right and raising an eyebrow. “Of course I meant it. I would go anywhere with you.”
Langa sighed and leaned his head against Reki’s shoulder. “I would go anywhere with you too, you know. You’re my home now.”
Reki laughed. “That’s cheesy. But I dig it.”
Langa looked up at him and scrunched his nose. Reki laughed even harder “You’re so cute when you’re annoyed, you know that?” And kissed him gently on the cheek.
“What happens now?” Langa asked.
The 6:15am Flight for Tokyo Haneda is now boarding. All passengers please report to Gate 67
“I guess we board our plane.” Reki put away his wrench and stood up, grabbing his bag and throwing it over his shoulder. Langa looked up at him, as Reki reached out his hand for Langa to grab. Langa interlaced his fingers in Reki’s and followed wherever he led.
They walked hand in hand to the gate, a new day rising.