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Sunshine danced between Langa’s fingers as he inspected the newly acquired scratches in his hand, one right across his palm and two in his middle and ring fingers, all of which had been carefully covered with the colorful pokémon band-aids Reki carried around in his backpack. Sweat dripped down his forehead and his skin had that slight feverish feeling that told him he’d been in the sun for too long, but it was nice and warm and he was tired enough to not want to move for the next hour, at least.
“Catch!” he heard, just a second before a water bottle landed on his chest with a painful thump.
He grabbed it before it could roll off onto the grass, sitting up as Reki made himself comfortable next to him, his own water bottle already half-empty in his hands.
“You’re supposed to yell catch before you throw things at people, you know.”
Reki smiled, leaning back on his hand as he took another sip. “What’s the fun in that?”
Langa just snorted at him, looking away at a group of kids playing together by the ramps. He watched as one of them tripped and fell to the ground, and then as another one helped them up and checked for any injuries, just like Reki had done with him a dozen times since they got to the park.
“This is no good,” he’d said after a particularly bad fall, eyeing the bruise already blooming next to his elbow. “Here, take my hoodie. It’ll help a little with the impact next time.”
All Langa could do was comply as Reki took off the yellow hoodie and pulled it over his head and past his arms like he was a child. “But what about you?”
“I’m not the one kissing the pavement all the time, am I?” He’d patted Langa’s hair with a grin on his lips and hopped on the board before Langa could voice any more protests.
Not that he had any. All he had was a soft hoodie that smelled like the deodorant Reki always used and the overwhelming thought that the pavement was far from what he wanted to be kissing all the time.
He shook it off then, just like he’d been doing for a few months now, but seeing Reki sprawled out under the sun with the sleeves of his shirt rolled up and his hair falling over his eyes, he could feel his heartbeat starting to pick up again.
“You’re getting all red in the face,” the redhead pointed out, putting a cold, wet hand to Langa’s forehead. “Come on, let’s move out of the sun.”
“Don’t want to.” He leaned into Reki’s shoulder, dropping as much weight onto him as he could until they were both laying down again, his cheek pressed to his chest. “Too tired.”
“Then at least take the hoodie off before you start overheating.”
He tugged at the fabric to pull it up, but before he could—and, really, before Langa could stop himself—the taller boy grabbed his hands to stop him, pointedly pulling the hoodie back down.
“No,” he said, arms crossed firmly around the fabric. Then his brain caught up with what had just happened and his cheeks started burning even more than they were before, his gaze falling down to the collar of Reki’s shirt. “I like it. It’s…” Yours. “Really soft.”
Reki stared at him with his mouth hanging open for a second, disbelief slowly melting into something else entirely as he turned his head to the side and mumbled something under his breath.
“—fucking cute.”
Langa perked up at that. “What?”
“I— nothing.” He dismissed it with a shake of his head.
“Hey, Reki.” He pushed himself up on his elbows, taking in the blush on Reki’s cheeks, the little pout he probably wasn’t even aware he had, the way the sunlight made his amber eyes sparkle like gold. “You’re cute too.”
For a moment, Reki’s entire face softened as he looked at Langa through his lashes, his eyes flickering down so quickly that Langa could’ve mistaken it for a blink. But he didn’t, and it just made him more aware of how close they were. How easy it would be to just lean closer and kiss him.
And then Reki was sitting up, stretching his back and searching for his phone to look at the time.
“We should head back,” he said, looking everywhere but Langa like he did whenever he was hiding something. “I promised your mom you’d be back before 5.”
Langa knew better than to push it—trying to squeeze anything out of Reki when he didn’t want you to know never led to anything but more distance, and as much as he hated not knowing, he hated the thought of that even more. So he got to his feet, shook the bits of grass out of his friend’s hair, and hummed in agreement.
The ride back was unusually silent, every attempt at conversation Langa made being met with a hum or a one-worded answer. With every one of them, his guts twisted more and more. He’d done something to upset his best friend, but what? Was it the compliment? Was he so obvious that Reki had picked up on his feelings and it made him uncomfortable?
“Langa? We’re here.”
“Oh.” He blinked. “I didn’t notice.”
With a kick to the back of his board, he stopped it and picked it up from the ground. Reki still wouldn’t look at him for more than a second and it was eating him from the inside, but he had no idea how to fix it. There was no point in apologizing—he didn’t regret any of it, and apologies were no good if you didn’t mean it. But he had to say something. Anything.
“Did I—” he started, but Reki had chosen that exact moment to speak too.
“You can keep the hoodie for today since you liked it so much,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, and it sounded like a truce. “I’ll get it back later.”
Langa nodded, not sure how else to respond to that, then tentatively extended his hand for their usual hand shake. “Text me when you get home?”
“Yeah, sure.” He put his hand against Langa’s, but instead of the usual high-five and fist bump, he laced their fingers together and leaned in to leave a kiss on Langa’s cheek.
His breath caught in his throat and a hand shot up to cover the spot, his board hitting the ground with a loud noise that made Reki flinch.
“Was this weird? Fuck, I made it weird, didn’t I? I just thought— back in the park you— just forget this ever hap—”
Langa held him by the shoulder and gave him a well-deserved shake. “Shut up.”
Without a second thought, he pressed their lips together, grabbing a fistful of Reki’s shirt where he’d been holding him just to have some sort of grounding.
A terrifying second passed in which the redhead didn’t react at all, but just as he tried to step back and maybe run as far as he could so he didn’t have to deal with the fact that he’d just kissed his best friend because of a misunderstanding, Reki placed a hand on his neck to keep him in place, chasing after his lips to keep them from being separated.
Something exploded in Langa’s chest, his heart beating so loud and fast that anyone in a mile radius could hear it. He let go of his shirt in order to place a hand on his jaw and angle it a bit upwards, and in return Reki pulled him closer by the waist until their chests bumped together. Too Hard. Making Reki lose balance.
“Shit,” he hissed when the skateboard slipped under his feet, the only thing keeping him from hitting the ground being Langa’s reflexive hold on his waist.
They both followed the board as it gained momentum and strolled down the road, heading in the direction they’d just come from. Langa honestly didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or personally break the piece of wood in two.
“Stay here,” said Reki after the initial shock was over. “I’ll be right back.”
Langa watched fondly as he ran down the street, waving his hands and yelling hey, catch that board! to whoever was within hearing range. He was nearing the end of the street when he turned around, one hand cupping his mouth and the other pointed at him.
“Don’t move! I wanna do that again!”
Langa shot him two thumbs up and tried to hold his laugh when Reki tripped and almost fell on his ass.
Three weeks later, they were hanging out at Reki’s living room, sitting comfortably on a bunch of cushions on the ground, with a movie playing mostly as background noise on the TV. At one point during the evening, Langa had ended up pressed to Reki’s side, a leg thrown over his and his head resting on the curve of his neck.
“How about that dark blue button up?” he asked after a long moment of silence and Reki’s hand threading through his hair. “You said you liked it.”
“I said I liked it on you,” he emphasized, giving Langa’s nose a little tap.
Langa huffed, leaning back on his chest. “You’re so picky.”
“You know you could just give me my hoodie back, right?” he said, moving a few strands of hair out of Langa’s face.
“Nope.” He shook his head, undoing his boyfriend’s work. “Can’t do that.”
Reki took his face between his hands and squished his cheeks together, his lips getting squeezed in between them. “Fine,” he said, giving him a quick peck before letting go. “Your jean jacket, then.”
“Deal,” he grinned, and soon they were kissing again, slow and lazy like they had all the time in the world, because they did.