Chapter Text
Nanako’s worries over her son had been temporarily forgotten as she drove down the dark Okinawan streets towards their new home. The rental car was packed head to toe with all of their belongings, much of which had been tossed out before making their trans-Pacific move. Thick winter coats and snow gear weren’t needed here. This thought brought the worry towards her son back on, and she found herself asking: “Are you sure you didn’t want to keep your snowboard?”
“...There’s no snow here.” Was all the boy answered, and Nanako sighed. Was bringing him here really the best decision?
Then, before any further guilt or contemplation could set in, a silhouette of something came flying into the road. A red flash, the squealing of the breaks. Langa slammed into the glovebox, his heart racing for the first time in weeks.
“W-what was that?! An animal?” Nanako huffed out, turning the car’s brights on.
Langa couldn’t catch his breath at the sight. Laying sprawled out mere feet in front of the car was no animal, but a person. And he wasn’t moving.
Langa was the first to unbuckle, his body moving of its own accord as it flung him from the vehicle to check on the boy. His heart leapt at the sight of red, but he exhaled in relief upon realizing it was just the boy’s garish hair color. He crouched at his side, hesitantly bringing a hand to his shoulder. “H-hey…are you alright?” How pathetic, of course he wasn’t.
Langa heard his mother’s door opening in time with the boy letting out a low groan. Langa squinted through the darkness up the hillside the boy had fallen from. Thank god they hadn’t hit him, but what happened? The hill went higher up into black trees, and Langa could almost make out lights a good distance away, but didn’t hear anything.
Suddenly, the boy turned over to face Langa, the action seeming to cause him a great deal of pain as he let out a soft hiss. “Whoa whoa, easy!” Nanako shouted, rushing over to them.
Time seemed to freeze for Langa as he met eyes with the boy. His eyes were impossibly bright, round and colored like warmed honey or even solid gold. He wore a headband that presumably held back his bangs, both of which having gone astray in the fall. His skin was covered in dirt and minor scrapes, but something was clearly more hurt when the boy sat back and clutched his left forearm protectively.
“Gah—arm’s broken.” The boy said with only mild irritation, as if it was something as insignificant as noticing your shoes were untied.
“O-OH my god. Oh my god. Okay,” Nanako flitted about them, outwardly as terrified as Langa internally felt, “Please get in the car, we’ll take you to the hospital!”
Langa was helping the boy to his feet, the boy watching him with a mixed look of thankfulness and curiosity. He then, of all things, smiled, and let his bad arm drop to his side while the good arm casually rested behind his head: “Thanks but no thanks, lady. I can handle it.”
What? Langa couldn’t help the hot feeling rising in his chest—anger? Concern? Before he could voice anything, a low rumbling sound came from down the street. A single, round headlight gradually came into view, the brights from their rental car revealing it to be a man riding a deep navy motorcycle.
“Manager Oka!” The redhead cheered and practically pranced over to the bike, taking a seat behind the helmeted driver.
“Wai—” Langa doesn’t know why he tried to stop them, considering the boy clearly knew whoever the biker was, and he couldn’t do anything but watch as the biker revved the engine. Langa locked eyes with the boy a final time as the bike sped past, for a fraction of a moment. The boy, unbelievably, was smiling wide, as if he was having fun. Like he hadn’t just rolled down what was basically a small mountain, breaking his arm in the process, and had almost got hit by a car.
The country road they were on had light posts few and far between, so the motorcycle was out of sight in the darkness in a matter of seconds. Langa and his mother just stood there dumbly and watched it disappear, stunned.
“Well, that was crazy.” Nanako manages to break the silence, starting to turn back towards the car, “See, I told you Okinawa would be exciTING—” Her voice hitches in surprise, causing Langa to whip around and see that she had tripped on something.
A skateboard? “I wonder if it belongs to that boy.” Nanako bent down and picked it up like it was some foreign thing, and Langa supposed that it was. “What do you say we stick it in the trunk with the rest of our things? This is a small town, I’m sure we’ll see him again.”
See him again. The words sent nervous butterflies up through his core. He nodded eagerly at the notion, and returning to his seat in the rental car, he felt completely different about the move than he had upon arrival. Maybe Okinawa wouldn’t be so bad after all.