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It’s kind of funny how he seems to have most of his life-changing revelations on a skateboard. It’s even funnier when he realises all of them have to do with his best friend. When he’s lost in the empty cold and resigns himself to falling into death’s embrace, an Icarus shedding wings, all it takes is one look at the word Reki had painted onto the board to let him fly.
And fly he does, laughter bubbling in his chest, as he skates down the rocky ground and imagines amber eyes watching him on the screens way down below. Look at me, don’t stop looking ‘till I get there. He spares a glance at Adam beside him and feels pity that soon extends into a promise, because Langa isn’t the type of person to leave someone behind, not when he’s just escaped a void and can recognise it in Adam’s panicked denial of needing something human.
The race becomes less of a death trap then, and more of an exhilarating challenge. They soar over a fallen tree, the wind carrying the many shouts and cheering of the crowds. The music that fills ‘S’ when they reach another corner beats in sync with Langa’s heart as he grabs his skateboard in yet another gravity-defying feat. He remembers watching Reki make it, remembers the sheer awe he felt as Reki turned a chunk of wood into something that soon became an extension of his being. He remembers laying in his bed later, skateboard tucked under his arms, thinking about the way Kyan’s eyes had glittered when he talked about different types of wheels. He was ashamed when he figured out he could not recall a word his friend had said, just the way the corners of his mouth quirked up. No, he decides, they’re not bad things to remember at all.
Adam barks out a laugh as Langa passes him again and asks, “You were never my Eve, were you?”, but he doesn’t seem bitter when Langa shakes his head in return. If Snow was Eve, he had bitten the apple a long time ago. Besides, if someone were to ask, he much prefers to be Galatea. He had been a statue before he moved to Okinawa, frozen in grief and apathy. Then, a skinny kid with hair red like a gemstone asked him to skate together and there must have been Aphrodite hiding in his smile because Langa came to life and could not, would not look away.
He catches the sight of the finish line and searches for the only face in the crowd that matters. The next moments seem to come in slow motion and he spares a second to note that Joe is holding his phone out, probably recording, while the roar of the masses and the wheels turning against dirt fade into a dull background as he leaps off his skateboard into the outstretched arms of love.
They tumble to the ground, limbs entangled and Langa is finally, finally home.
“I know what my happiness is now”, he says and pushes his lips to meet Reki’s. It’s his first kiss and by all accounts should probably be more awkward, but he figures Reki makes everything perfect because he’s pretty sure he was made to trap Reki’s sighs in his mouth like this.
He doesn’t know how much time has passed when a pointed cough brings them back to the present. They break apart with laboured breath and coloured cheeks to see their friends shielding them from the whistling mob that chants “Snow” so loud it might bring down real snowflakes from the sky. Joe is still recording and earns a kick from Cherry for saying something about posting it online while Miya grins at them and pats a teary-eyed Shadow.
It is when Hiromi starts openly weeping, mumbling about true romance, that Reki takes Langa’s hand in his, clearly embarrassed, but grinning like a fool.
“I found my happiness too; sorry it took me a bit to get it”.
As they share another kiss, Langa thinks that forever is shaping out to be pretty good.