Chapter Text
The first thing Reki does when he wakes up is smile, because he and Langa got together last night. Like, for-real, gonna-be-dating, boyfriends got-together. And they kissed. Reki brings his hands up to his face, smiling even wider. Oh, wow, they kissed. And then Reki walked Langa home, and then they kissed some more outside his door.
Reki rolls over and unplugs his phone, then sees that he has a notification from Langa already waiting for him. That makes him feel cozy-warm inside.
(He quickly changes Langa’s contact name to Langa, followed by a red heart. Then, after some contemplation, a fire emoji.)
Langa’s text reads, Good morning, handsome. Reki grins.
good morning, beautiful :)) he texts back. Then, after a second, adds i cant believe were actually together!!! followed by, can i kiss u when i see u this morning :0
I’d like that. Langa replies. I can’t believe we got together, either. Are you sure I didn’t dream it?
im sure :3 Reki sends back.
This morning, when the twins spill food on him, Reki just laughs it off and goes to change without another word, and puts his breakfast in a paper bowl and eats it on the way to school. He loses his balance when he tries to throw said paper bowl away while skating past a trash can and gets a road burn on his palm, but even though he’s out of bandages that are big enough to cover the scrape he does what he can with water from his water bottle and his hoodie sleeve to clean himself off, then gets back on his board with a smile because the sun is shining and the flowers are blooming and Langa likes him back, this is no day to feel down.
And just like always, his heart beats faster as he gets closer to the spot where he and Langa meet, and just like always, Langa’s eyes brighten when he sees Reki and he greets him with a smile and a wave. But this time, Reki gets to step off his skateboard and pull Langa into a kiss — a much shorter one than he would have liked — but oh, it still makes his head spin and his knees weak, as much of a cliche as that might be.
“Morning,” Langa says softly, gazing into Reki’s eyes so damn softly .
“Morning,” he replies, unable to stop himself from smiling.
They skate to school together, hand-in-hand but today it means something more, which is so wonderful, and now he doesn’t have to steal glances at Langa and he can actually just gaze lovingly at him like he always wanted to, and he can catch Langa’s eye and grin when Langa notices and Langa will smile back at him, blushing.
And even though there are all these differences— like when the other group of boys on the roof leaves, Reki can kiss Langa soundly just like he’s always wanted to — a startling amount of the day is the same as it’s always been. They still pass notes under the desk about how their annoying English teacher’s hairdo is slowly coming undone, they still tally the number of times the P.E. teacher calls a student a knucklehead, high-fiving when the count reaches a hundred after just a few days, and they still watch skating videos behind their notebooks instead of paying attention to Japanese Lit and a thousand other things that Reki can’t even list. Their dynamic somehow hasn’t changed; they’re still Reki and Langa, and they’re still best friends.
Reki supposes it makes sense. Maybe. But maybe it doesn’t feel different… because they’re not meant to be different. It’s kind of stupid. It’s really stupid. It probably just feels the same because they’re already so close! Yeah, that must be it.
The thought does bother him for a little while during the more boring parts of history class, though.
The last period of the day, they don’t have together, so when the last bell rings Reki darts out of the classroom and into the courtyard, where he jumps into Langa’s already waiting arms. Langa spins him around once, then leans his forehead against his.
“Missed you,” he murmurs. Reki snorts.
“You saw me two hours ago.”
“Yes, and that was two hours too long.”
That makes Reki laugh. “You’re ridiculous,” he says. They walk out of the school gates, hand-in-hand. “What do you wanna do today?”
Langa thinks for a second, then groans. “Oh no, I forgot I’m going to have to go straight home. I have a big geometry test tomorrow and if I don’t get a good grade I might actually fail the class.”
“I could help you study!” Reki suggests. “I’m good at geometry.”
“As much as I’d like that, I’m pretty sure that I would just spend the whole time thinking about kissing you.” Langa pouts. “I have to study alone.”
“I’m not opposed to kissing,” Reki says suggestively, and Langa looks at him like he’s in actual pain.
“Gonna fail the class, remember?”
Reki leans into Langa. “That sucks.” They walk home and part ways. For a moment, Reki just stands outside Langa’s door, brow furrowed. How the heck is he supposed to fill an afternoon without him?
He skates around aimlessly for a little while, wondering what would’ve happened if Langa had let him help him study… they’d probably be focused for maybe an hour, because Reki is good at math and likes seeing the way other people’s faces light up when they understand the concept he’s explaining, and he especially loves the way Langa’s face lights up. There’s something so damn adorable in the way his eyes widen and he bursts out an excited ‘Oh, I get it!’ that just makes Reki feel all mushy inside. So of course, he’d love to teach Langa some math.
But Langa doesn’t have much patience, so pretty soon he’d start tapping his foot or picking at his nails or chewing on his lip or all three at once, and then maybe Reki could lean over the desk and plant a kiss on the corner of his mouth, just as a little invitation, then he could pull back and smile coyly and maybe Langa would blush in that pretty way that he does… (and then maybe they could make out on Langa’s bed)
Reki stops his board and covers his smile with his hands. It’s just insane that stuff like that could be real and not just a wild fantasy. Reki feels bad for the poor schmo who’s gonna listen to him gush about all this.
His eyes widen, and he grins. He knows exactly who that poor schmo is gonna be.
“Joe!” Reki calls loudly, bursting through the door of the restaurant. “Guess what happened last night!” The (only) two customers in the place throw him dirty looks.
Joe appears from the door to the kitchen, untying his apron. “You and Langa got together?”
“ Yes!” Reki says loudly, settling into the same back booth he always does. Joe slides in across from him.
“That’s great!” he replies, smiling. He raises his hand in an invitation for a high-five. “What’d I tell you, kid?”
Reki high-fives him. “That he likes me back.”
“And he does!” Joe laughs. “So, start from the beginning! How did it happen?”
So Reki tells him and spares no detail, of course, and he’s got the whole evening practically memorised because of how many times he’s gone over it in his head. The whole time he talks, his hands move animatedly and he smiles and blushes and laughs— but most of all, Joe listens, smiling and nodding along and laughing, too, which Reki finds really touching. Joe is such an awesome guy. When he finishes the story, Joe smiles lopsidedly at him.
“That’s really, really great, Reki,” he says warmly. “Your guys’ getting together story is too cute, I swear.”
“I know,” Reki says dreamily.
“Though, I do have to say, it’s interesting that Cherry just, like, volunteered to help Langa. It seems a little out of character for him…” Joe says, looking like his mind is somewhere else.
“Well, hey, why don’t we go ask him?” Reki suggests. “Does he have any appointments right now?”
“No, he’s done with all his clients for today— wait, why did you expect me to know the answer to that?!”
“Perfect! Let’s go visit, then!” Reki says. “I wanna know more about the formation of the plan, anyway.”
Joe looks hesitant.
“Come on, Joe. It’ll be fun!” Reki pokes his arm. “And you’ll get to see Cherry all pretty in his yukata and stuff.”
“I regret telling you I like him,” Joe says, rolling his eyes. “And besides, I can’t just leave; I still have a half hour left in my shift.”
Reki grumbles. “If you’re the owner, doesn’t that mean you can just leave, like, whenever?”
“Um, no.”
“Fine,” he says. “I’ll just wait and suffer until your shift is over. Then we’ll go, right?”
“Sure, kid.”
“This is a bad idea,” Joe says. But he gets in the car with Reki anyway, sliding into the driver’s seat. “Why aren’t you hanging out with Langa right now?” he asks once they get on the road.
“He had to study,” Reki says, way too dramatic for the actual content of his sentence. Joe chuckles.
“Oh, hello, Reki,” Cherry says politely, standing just inside the building’s door, then his eyes narrow when he spots Joe parking the car. “What are you doing here?” he asks with thinly veiled aggression.
“Langa and I got together last night,” Reki bursts out, grinning.
Something Reki can’t quite place flashes across Cherry’s expression, and then he’s smiling sweetly, resting his fan against his chin. “That is wonderful news!” he says. “Though, I wasn’t expecting it for a few weeks yet.”
“Yeah, because of the plan you made with Langa, right?” Joe says. Cherry scowls.
“How did you know about that?”
“I told him!” Reki supplies helpfully. “And Langa told me. Nearly gave me a heart attack cause I asked him out and he said ‘wait, no!’ so I thought he was rejecting me.” He laughs.
“I... see,” Cherry says, reigning his expression back into something more, well, civilized. “Well, would you two like to come in?”
“Yes please! Please tell me how you and Langa made the plan!” Reki says, then, “Oh, should I take my sneakers off?” when he notices the neat row of shoes against the wall.
“That would be ideal,” Cherry replies. He leads them up a flight of stairs to an open room, the spring breeze drifting through where the curtains are drawn back and the windows thrown wide open. Cherry settles behind a table, and Reki kneels down across from him, fiddling with the sleeve of his hoodie.
“Is there tea?” Joe asks, sitting cross-legged.
“If you want tea, go make some,” says Cherry curtly.
“Geez, some host you are,” Joe grumbles, then disappears off into some… direction. Reki idly wonders why he knows where the kitchen is off the top of his head.
Cherry sits in silence for a moment, eyes closed and Reki waits, then he can’t hold it in and just blurts, “Why did you help Langa in the first place?” and it’s still a few long moments before Cherry even moves.
“Carla, alert me when Joe crosses back into earshot,” Cherry commands.
“ OK master,” comes Carla’s stilted voice.
Cherry takes a breath. “Back in February, I spotted Langa outside my building, walking by himself. He was hunched over, as though he was upset or crying. I called out to him, and invited him inside. I did not want the poor boy to suffer alone. When I asked what was wrong… he told me that he had just found out that the boy he had feelings for was homophobic, and, by translation, straight.”
Oh, that must have been That Day. Reki hangs his head. “It was a misunderstanding,” he says. Cherry smiles small.
“I am aware of that, Reki. At the time… Langa was not. I— I could relate to him.”
Reki blinks. “What do you mean?”
Cherry closes his eyes. “The one I have feelings for is straight,” he says simply. Reki snorts.
“Wait— you think Joe is straight?”
Cherry splutters, face red. “ Who told you that I have feelings for Joe! ” he whisper-shouts and Reki can’t help but laugh at him.
“No one told me, but like, come on. If you have feelings for someone, of course it’s him,” Reki says, unable to contain his grin and he really wants to shout that Joe likes him too but it’s not his secret to tell — “you guys are practically married, anyway.”
Cherry crosses his arms, chin turned up like the blush isn’t still super obvious on his face. “We are not,” he says.
“You definitely are — okay, whatever.” Reki waves his hand. “Finish the story.”
Cherry looks at him for a second, mouth twisted. “ Anyway, I could relate to him. I told him of my own pains, and I comforted him with the sweets stored away in the back.”
“Oh my god, Langa ate mopey-ice-cream over me,” Reki says to himself.
“What was that?”
“Nothing, keep talking,” Reki replies, smiling.
“Well, come the next day, Langa returned to my front door to let me know that he had discovered that you are bi, and went on to say that he wanted desperately to ask you out but did not know how.” Something in Cherry’s tone changes. “I... was happy for him, of course, for he had received the chance I wished for many times. So, I agreed to help him, in the hopes that he might get the happy ending I long for,” he says, voice soft.
Reki rests his chin on his hand. “Geez, you really are whipped.” he says. Please say something to Joe, oh god, you guys are pining so hard for nothing. “Why haven’t you said anything?” he questions instead.
Cherry tucks his bangs behind his ear, averting his eyes. He doesn’t look like he wants to answer the question. “You see… I am always the one to initiate any time we spend together. I am the one who visits him after hours, and invites him on trips overseas, and asks him to come to my place for a drink. He accepts, yes, but I feel as though he may only do so because of our long history of friendship.”
Reki rolls his eyes. “Okay, but he accepts every time, doesn’t he? If it were just because of your history, no way he’d agree every time .”
“Well, yes, but you would think that if he enjoyed the time we spent together, then he would ask as well.”
Reki wants to groan out loud. “Okay, well, have you ever thought that maybe he thinks that, because you insult him constantly, you don’t like him and you’re the one who’s just going through the motions in the name of your guys’ history?”
Cherry doesn’t reply.
“Oh my god.” Reki rubs a hand over his face. “Okay. Dude, if you like him so much, why aren’t you nice to him.”
“Please do not ever refer to me as ‘dude’ again,” Cherry requests, folding his hands in his lap. “And… I am not kind to him for the reason that… that I am scared he will see how much I care for him. I would not be able to hide it.”
“I just don’t get why you think you have to,” Reki says, frustrated. Cherry narrows his eyes a fraction.
“You are pushing this subject rather hard. I am already aware that you and Joe are close, given the fact that you told Joe the story of you and Langa’s getting-together immediately. Since you are close, he must tell you things as well, due to his oversharing nature.” He adjusts his glasses. “It is strange how much you seem to care about my little crush. Unless Joe has given you information that you are withholding from me.”
Reki’s eyes widen. “Nope— I don’t have any information, what are you talking about!” He laughs nervously, exaggerating his response. He technically hasn’t told Cherry that Joe likes him, so it’s okay, right? Yeah.
Cherry ducks his chin, smiling. “Thank you, Reki. Perhaps it is not foolish of me to care for him the way I do, after all.”
Reki beams, and after a moment, Cherry’s smile fades. “I do worry, though. If he did feel for me as well, and we got together, would he—”
Carla beeps twice.
“—I wanted to create a lovely set up for the night Langa would confess to you, so I pulled out all the stops, one could say,” Cherry says and Reki blinks, confused. Oh, wait, that beeping must mean that Joe is back in earshot. Reki plays along.
“Man, I kinda wish I hadn’t asked him out, that sounds totally cool,” Reki says, a little stilted, rubbing the back of his head.
“The plan?” Joe asks, poking his head through the door and Reki nods. “Damn, guess I missed the explanation. Oh yeah, Cherry, your tea selection sucks.”
“They are traditional blends, you shallow-brained gorilla,” Cherry responds, eye twitching.
“No— they’re tasteless, and bitter as hell. I made iced coffee instead.” Joe sets down a cup in front of Reki and he makes a happy noise, immediately grabbing for the cup and taking a long sip.
“I don’t stock coffee. Where did you even find that?”
“I brought it. I keep coffee grounds in my car.”
“What kind of person does that.”
“Um, a smart person.” He sits down right next to Cherry, who elbows him, but doesn’t move away. Instead, the two continue to bicker, but there’s something different about this time. Something, dare he say it, fonder, not in the words but in the tone, in their gazes. In Cherry’s gaze. Reki hides his smile behind his cup.
“So, catch me up to speed. What’d I miss?” Joe says.
“He helped Langa because he’s a closet romantic,” Reki grins.
“That is not true,” Cherry retorts quickly, crossing his arms.
“Then what is true?” asks Joe.
“I—” Cherry flounders, then snaps his mouth closed and averts his gaze. Joe stares at him for a long moment.
“A closet romantic, huh.”
“Shut up.”
Joe starts cackling.
“ Shut up!” Cherry yells, shaking his shoulders but Joe just keeps laughing hysterically, wiping dramatically at the corners of his eyes.
“Oh my god, this is priceless. A closet romantic!”
“It’s an overstatement! Lies!”
“Oh yeah? Then what’s an accurate statement, Cherry?” Reki teases because he knows Cherry can’t tell the truth and, well, Reki is only gonna take the high road so many times. This is just too funny. When does he ever get opportunities to mess with Cherry, of all people?
“I’m—” Cherry starts, then is cut off by another burst of laughter from Joe and his eyes narrow, face red. “It’s not that funny!”
“It is!”
“ Anyway, ” Cherry says loudly. “The state of my opinion on romance aside, I assisted Langa in planning an extravagant confession, the plan fell through, the end. That is all you need to know.”
“Ugh, spare all the gory details, would you,” Joe says sarcastically.
“The plan does not matter. It is in the past, and we should focus on the future—”
“You will tell me at some point—”
“—Reki, what are your plans for your first date?"
Oh shit. Yeah. That. “Um.”
Joe looks at him. “You don’t have plans.”
“Um. I guess I assumed we’d plan it together?” Reki says. Cherry tuts at him.
“No, you should create a plan for him. People enjoy it when their partners take charge. It shows they care.”
(Joe glances at him, wondering what it means that Cherry always plans time for the two of them. He pushes the thought from his mind. Of course Cherry means it platonically, in their case. Of course.)
“I dunno,” Reki replies. “I don’t think Langa and I are really like that.”
Cherry hums, contemplative. “Well, I do suppose you know best. If that is what works for you, then that is what you should do.”
Reki smiles, and Joe asks Cherry about work and Cherry begins a rant about an insufferable client and then it’s just like hanging out with friends, except they’re way older than him even though it doesn’t really feel that way.
Joe and Cherry’s dynamic really should be tiring or annoying, Reki thinks, but something about it is just easy, because Reki knows on every level that they care about each other very much. They’ve been friends forever. Even though they bicker kind of constantly, it’s obvious that their discontent doesn’t go any further than whatever stupid thing they’re fighting about.
And just like that, the bright square of sunlight shifts across the floor and disappears all together, the three mens’ laughter drifting out the window and into the rapidly cooling street below, draped in shadows after the sun set below the ocean, and before Reki knows it it’s totally dark outside.
Cherry and Joe are arguing about… something, some trip they went on years ago and Reki’s phone buzzes with a text from Langa. Okay, I did my whole study guide. I might know things.
Reki smiles. woah u might know things, he replies. exciting
I know. Very.
does that mean i cam come over now?? Reki asks.
Please do. I think my mind may be melting.
“Okay Langa’s done studying I can go see him now!” Reki says excitedly, reaching for his backpack.
Joe chuckles. “All right, let’s head out, kiddo. See ya, Cherry.”
“Thank you for hosting us, Cherry!”
“You’re very welcome,” Cherry says, maybe a little bit warmly.
When Reki walks into Langa’s room, he’s sitting with his forehead dropped down on his desk, all the lights out except for the lamp beside his bed, the crisp night air drifting in through the open window. “Langa, what are you doing?” he says, laughing a little.
Langa raises his head, lines of frustration in his face softening when his eyes meet his. “Reki,” he says, soft.
“Hi,” Reki replies, giving a little wave.
Langa rises from his chair, moving closer and placing his hand beneath Reki’s chin, fingers gentle. He gazes at Reki for a moment, eyes moving over the planes of his face and his expression is totally relaxed, now. Relaxed and content. “Can I kiss you?” he asks.
“I’m just gonna go ahead and say that there’s never gonna be a time that I’ll say no to that question,” Reki says, leaning in. Langa laughs, small, and meets him halfway, his lips moving slowly against Reki’s, drawing him into a warm, safe embrace that makes Reki feel like they’re infinitely close to each other and he can feel Langa’s eyelashes brushing his cheek— it’s so wonderful, so perfect he doesn’t know how he could have survived before he was allowed to do this.
Reki pulls back after a few long moments, and they breathe together. “I take it that studying wasn’t so much fun,” he says finally.
Langa groans, eyebrows pinching together. “Please, my mind doesn’t work anymore,” he whines.
“Come on, math isn’t that bad! It’s kinda fun, don’t you think?” Reki says. He sits down on Langa’s bed, leaning back against the pillows.
“No. I don’t think.” Langa sits beside him, pressing into his shoulder.
“At least there’s a definitive right answer. Like, in Japanese Lit, the teacher can just decide you’re wrong and give you a bad grade. In math, I can actually prove I’m right,” Reki points out. Japanese Lit sucks.
“I don’t wanna talk about class right now,” Langa grumbles, looking up at him. Then he flushes a little, but enough that Reki can see in the barely-there light. “Can you… can you just hold me for a little while?” he asks, voice small.
Reki’s heart stutters. “Um. Yeah,” he says.
Langa looks at him for a second, as if making sure that Reki really means it, then shifts around, nestling himself in the space underneath Reki’s chin and Reki can feel Langa’s breath against his neck, warm and even and Langa pulls the comforter up over them because it’s unseasonably cold tonight. Reki can’t believe how soft Langa looks right now, curled up against him, wrapped up in a blanket that shields them from the world, that makes this little space a bubble for just the two of them. This Langa, the one right here, is a Langa that only Reki gets to see, the one who’s sweet and cuddly and whose head hurts because of math. That’s Reki’s Langa. He brings a hand up to Langa’s hair, stroking it softly, and leaves the other between them where Langa twines it with one of his own.
“Is this okay?” Langa whispers.
“This is wonderful,” Reki replies, a soft smile tugging at his lips. He brings his hand up to stroke Langa’s cheek, fingers brushing over his skin, trying to memorize the shape of his face so he can come back to this moment again and again and feel exactly how they are right now. Langa gazes at him, and he forgets time. He leans forward, drawing Langa into a soft kiss, sighing against him because nothing else matters, right now, in this wonderful, perfect moment. Nothing else could possibly matter.
Reki thinks he would have stayed forever on that bed, so wonderfully close to Langa, sharing tender kisses with him and holding him tightly. Right now, they’re alone in the sleeping world; it’s only them and the quiet hum of cicadas outside. Nothing but this, this, this.
“Reki,” Langa says. His name has never sounded so beautiful.
“Langa,” Reki says. Langa opens his eyes slowly, gazing at Reki, eyes so soft and full of adoration and Reki can’t believe Langa is looking at him like this, so, so lovingly his heart just about stops. How did someone like Langa ever come to look at him like this? Someone so wonderful, and beautiful, and talented and amazing, in Reki’s arms, looking at him like this; it’s too good to be real. It’s too good to be real, but somehow it is real; Langa is here, Langa is in his arms and smiling softly at him and Reki loves him so much.
He stiffens. He loves Langa? Where did that come from? Does he love Langa?!
...Does he love Langa?
He thinks back, then, to the very beginning. To the first day of class, the first time he saw Langa, feeling incredibly bored. The first time he talked to Langa, when he stopped his skateboard from flying down the street. The first time he saw Langa smile, Langa laugh, the first time he saw Langa’s eyes in the sunlight.
And he thinks about all the long hours they spent at the skatepark, Langa falling again and again and groaning with pain while Reki laughed at him. He thinks of showing him tricks and holding him steady and wrapping his cuts and scrapes in bandages, Langa’s skin sticky and warm beneath his fingers. He thinks about the first time he saw Langa really, truly fly.
Maybe there’s never been a time that he hasn’t loved Langa.
Probably the revelation should feel bigger than it does, Reki thinks. It should be heart-stopping, world-freezing, mind-breaking but somehow, it isn’t; his heart still beats and the world still turns and Reki loves Langa. Nothing else has ever made so much sense.
Really, how could he not love Langa? Langa, who is always there for him, who understands him on a level deeper than Reki knew possible, who cares about him, who made an embarrassingly cheesy plan with a guy he barely knew just in the hopes of wooing him? Langa, who looks at him like this? Langa, who means the world to him?
Of course Reki loves him. Of course.
Then Langa catches sight of the clock over Reki’s shoulder, and his brow furrows. “It’s 23:47,” he says.
Reki blinks. “Oh shit.”
“Yeah.”
A silence.
“Hey, Reki,” Langa starts, tracing his finger up Reki’s arm. He looks away, nervous. “Do you… do you want to stay the night?”
Reki raises his eyebrows, heart pounding. “Um.”
“Not to like— do anything,” Langa says quickly. “Just… I— it’s late, and I… I want to fall asleep in your arms, if that’s okay,” he finishes softly.
“Oh.” Reki’s chest feels tight. “Okay.”
“Okay,” Langa smiles.
“Yeah, I’ll— uh, I’ll text my mom,” Reki says, giddy.
“Have you told her we’re together?” Langa asks.
“Not yet.”
“Yeah, me neither. I mean, I haven’t told my mom.”
“Oh. We’re gonna have to do that at some point.”
“Yeah, but they’ll let us have sleepovers if we don’t.”
“A very good point,” Reki says, and Langa laughs.
“Ugh, I don’t want to get up,” he says.
“Yeah, me neither, but we gotta like, brush our teeth and stuff. Also, I don’t want to sleep in my school pants,” Reki tells him and he hums. A few moments pass.
“Langa?”
“Hm.”
“We gotta get up.”
“I know, I know,” he says, then he pulls the comforters off and leaves the room, his socked feet falling lightly on the hardwood floor. Reki feels cold everywhere Langa was pressed against him.
He sits up and texts his mom, letting her know not to worry and that he’s staying the night at Langa’s. She replies almost immediately, Sounds good! Tell the Hasegawa’s I say hi! 😊
Langa comes back in, tells him his mom said he’s welcome to stay over, and goes to change in the bathroom, leaving Reki alone in the room again. He looks around, then shimmies out of his clothes and grabs one of Langa’s old tee-shirts off the floor and tugs it over his head. He eventually finds a pair of sweatpants, too, and puts them on even though they actually drag on the floor. He ties the waistband as tight as he can, then goes to join Langa in the bathroom. Langa freezes when he opens the door, comb in his hand.
“You’re wearing my clothes,” he says dumbly.
“I wear your clothes all the time,” Reki responds, then joins him by the sink, reaching for his toothbrush that just stays at Langa’s house because it seems silly to carry it back and forth all the time.
“Yeah, and I’ve never been allowed to say how much it gets to me,” Langa says, then covers his blush with his hand. “You’re wearing my clothes.”
“You said that already.”
Langa makes a strangled sound, and Reki laughs, then leans up to kiss him. “Don’t worry, I like wearing your clothes, too.”
“Does you forgetting your hoodie an impossible number of times a week have something to do with that?” Langa asks.
“Maybe,” Reki replies, smiling. They brush their teeth and get in bed, immediately sliding in next to each other. Langa pulls him close, burying his nose in his hair. Reki closes his eyes.
“Goodnight,” Langa says.
“Goodnight.”
He’s out in seconds.
You know that feeling, on those wonderful mornings when you wake up and everything is just unbelievably comfortable, and you can’t imagine moving? That’s the first thing Reki registers. He’s so, so comfortable, and he’s so warm, too, but that wonderful warm where everything is cozy instead of being too hot.
The next thing he registers is the body curled around him, and the arm draped over his waist and the hand in his hair. Langa. He’s in Langa’s bed. He’s in Langa’s bed, and Langa is cuddling him, because they’re together and Langa said yes and Reki loves him.
Reki opens his eyes slowly, taking in the way the barely-there sunlight peaks through the curtains, falling perfectly over the planes of Langa’s face, lax with sleep. The way his eyelashes flutter, every now and then, breathing soft and even, and he’s so, so beautiful. He’s so beautiful.
Reki brushes his hair away from his face from where it falls in his eyes, fingers slow, tucking the silk-soft strands behind his ear, and he smiles softly. Then, he gets to watch something magical: Langa waking up.
He takes a slow, deep breath first, then lets it out, breath fluttering against Reki’s face. His hand tenses in Reki’s hair as he stretches a little, nose ever-so-slightly scrunched, then relaxes with the rest of him. He sits still, then, for a few moments, before his eyes finally flutter open, mouth pulling into a sleepy smile. “Reki,” he says.
“Good morning,” Reki whispers, smiling, too.
“Good morning,” Langa whispers back, then pulls him into a kiss so soft Reki can barely feel it, just this little brush of their lips together, slow and sleepy and perfect. Reki moves forward, just enough so that they’re kissing a little more, now, this gentle rhythm of the chaste press of their lips together, again and again, then once more for good measure. In this bed, with Langa, in this perfect cozy-warm blanket, in this bubble where no one asks anything of them, not quite yet; well, it’s the best morning of Reki’s life.
Then Langa opens his mouth and they both pull back quickly, tongues out and noses wrinkled in disgust.
“Ew, morning breath,” Reki says, and Langa laughs a little.
“Water first?”
“Yeah water first.”
Langa reaches over and takes a long drink of the water he keeps by his bedside, then hands it to Reki, who does the same. They both swish it around for a second, then swallow. Reki smiles at Langa, and Langa smiles back. “Morning make-out session?” he says, eyebrows raised suggestively and Langa just gazes at him, smiling, and says, “You’re so silly,” and captures his lips again.
They skate to school together, holding hands, of course, and they pass notes about their English teacher’s outfit, and they tally the times the P.E. teacher calls a student a knucklehead, and they watch skating videos behind their notebooks in Japanese lit. Oh, and they hold hands under the table in Chemistry, too, which is very nice.
“So I talked to Cherry yesterday,” Reki says at lunch, his mouth full. He pushes his food around in his bento. “He told me how you guys, you know, became friends and stuff.”
Langa hums. “Cherry really is kinder than he seems.”
“Right?” Reki says. “He just hosted me and Joe for like, the whole afternoon slash evening, out of the blue.” Reki prods him with his elbow, grinning. “And told me that you ate mopey-ice-cream over me,” he teases.
“Ugh, yes, let me have my teenage angst; I thought you were straight,” Langa grumbles while Reki laughs.
“You’re so adorable,” he says. I love you so much. “Hey, Langa,” Reki starts, running his fingers over the coarse material of his skateboard. “What do you wanna do for our first date?”
Langa mumbles something incoherent around his mouth full of food, then tucks his hair behind his ear from where the rooftop breeze was insistantly tugging at it. He swallows. “I dunno, I didn’t think I’d get this far,” he admits.
Reki snorts. “As if I’d like someone other than you.”
“That’s my line,” Langa says, monotone. “You talk about pretty girls all the time.”
“Okay, sure, but if I actually wanted to date one of them you’d think I’d try a little harder.”
Langa hums.
“Anyway—” Reki waves his hand “—first date. What are we gonna do?”
“Um. You pick,” Langa says, then takes a huge bite of his sandwich.
“What— why just me?” Reki pouts. “I have no idea what to do!”
“Well, you asked me out, so you have to plan the date.”
“Langa, nooo, I don’t know how to plan a date! You need to help me!”
“Nope, that’s not how it works.” Langa states.
“Noooooo, Langa—” Reki shakes his shoulders insistently and Langa just holds eye contact, chewing his sandwich. Reki pouts and drops him. “Okay, fine, I’ll figure something out,” Reki grumbles. He takes a bite from his bento, thinking. How exactly does one plan a date?
During history class, he flips to a new page of his notebook and writes ‘date ideas’ at the top, chewing on his lip. Where do people go on dates? The skatepark, maybe… no. He crosses out that option quickly. Of course they can’t go to the skate park, they go there all the time! It has to be something else…
Throughout the rest of the lesson, he puzzles over this stupid question of where the heck he’s going to take Langa on a date, because he cannot think of anything for the life of him. Well, that’s not actually the problem, it’s just that all of his ideas actually suck ass. His entire page is filled up with hastily-crossed out suggestions and goddamnit why is this so hard, why is he so bad at planning a date! It shouldn’t be this hard!
And when he gets home from skating with Langa he flops down on his bed and groans into his pillow because he still hasn’t thought of anything good, goddamnit, why hasn’t he thought of anything good?
He spends the next miserable hour and a half doing the exact same damn thing he did in history and then wards of Tsukihi when she barges into his room and asks him loudly why he’s trying to come up with date ideas and he pushes her out of his room, shutting the door and then letting his head hit the hard material with a dull thud. This is not working. He needs help.
“Joe, how do you plan a date?!” is the first thing out of Reki’s mouth when he pushes through the restaurant doors, backpack swung haphazardly over his shoulder, looking and feeling very frazzled.
“Aye, Reki!” Joe calls, a washcloth slung over his shoulder.
To Reki’s surprise, Cherry turns his head from where he’s seated at the bar, a glass of wine pinched elegantly between his fingers. “Greetings, Reki,” he says. He adjusts his glasses and smiles, smug. “So, Langa wishes for you to plan your date, after all?
“Yes you were right I was wrong yada yada can you guys please help me I need this to go well.”
Joe and Cherry make eye contact. “I think we can work something out,” Joe says.