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Miya likes to complain. Today, it's about how dumb all his classmates are for wanting to play the Pocky game all the time.
"Other people are allowed to like things that you don't like," Reki points out. They're sitting cross-legged on the little grassy area at the edge of the skatepark, taking a break. Langa is a little further back from the pavement, carefully tucked into the shade of a nearby tree since he gets sunburned so easily.
Miya wrinkles his nose. "There's these two girls who won't stop bugging me about it. And then they're jerks when I say no."
Reki snorts. "Okay, two of your classmates being jerks is a little different from 'everyone at my school is worse than slime'."
Miya bristles and opens his mouth to reply, but Langa breaks into the conversation. "What's the Pocky game?"
Reki and Miya look over at him, and Langa shuffles closer, right up the edge of his shady patch on the grass. He looks between them curiously - every now and then Reki's reminded of the weird gaps in what Langa knows about Japan. (Langa laughed until there were tears in his eyes when he learned about umbrella vending machines. Reki still doesn't get why that was so funny - sometimes you need an umbrella! Seems very normal and practical to him.)
Miya sketches out the rules - two people, one stick of Pocky, race to see who can eat their half of it faster.
"It's dumb," he adds dismissively.
"A game where you eat," says Langa thoughtfully. Reki looks over, and even though his expression is pretty blank on the surface, Reki can tell he's sparkling with excitement.
It's with a nervous fluttering in his stomach that Reki realizes they actually have a box of Pocky, in the bag of snacks they picked up on their way to the park.
Miya's explanation left out the part where it's mostly a way of getting close to your crush, and of maybe accidentally kissing them. Reki's definitely not going to explain that, and he hopes Langa isn't going to figure it out. It's Langa, so Reki's pretty hopeful - he hasn't noticed any of the eleven times someone at school has asked him on a date. (Six classmates, three people from other classes in their year, and two senpai; ten girls and one boy.)
Obviously, Langa can go on a date with anyone he wants to. But Reki has liked Langa pretty much ever since they met. And for a while now he's also wanted to kiss him. Langa is cool and handsome and really good at skateboarding, and also one of Reki's favourite people ever. Someday Reki is totally going to confess properly, but the mood has to be right. A sunny Saturday afternoon in late spring, at the skatepark with their middle school friend, is definitely not the right mood.
Their middle school friend who's a massive jerk, incidentally.
"Oh, look," says Miya ominously, fishing the box of Pocky out of the shopping bag where it's lying on the grass next to Reki's knee. "You could totally try playing it." He holds the box out to Langa.
Langa takes it, and looks expectantly up at Miya.
Miya scowls. "No, not with me - you two can play. I'll be the referee."
Langa turns his expectant gaze to Reki, and Reki feels his face heat up.
"It's not a very interesting game - like, it's over in two seconds," Reki protests, trying to talk Langa out of it.
He actually kind of does want to kiss Langa, even if it's out in public with Miya sitting a meter away, just to see if it's anything like what he's imagined. Reki hasn't kissed anyone before, so his imagination is pretty hazy when it comes to the details. But he's not sure he wants Langa to know Reki wants to kiss him, and Reki suspects that even with how unobservant Langa is, he might be able to figure it out if Reki enthusiastically agrees to playing.
It's rough, this whole having a crush thing.
Having successfully wrestled the packaging open, Langa pulls out a single stick of Pocky. "Reki," he says, holding it out. "Do you wanna try?"
Langa seems excited to play, and if he's going to accidentally kiss anyone it might as well be Reki.
"Fine," says Reki, and takes the offered pretzel. He leans closer to Langa and holds it up between their mouths. Langa leans in and his lips purse gently around one end. This close, Reki can see every individual hair in his eyebrows, has to choose which eye he looks at.
"Ready?" says Miya brightly. "Okay - go!"
The competitive streak that Langa exhibits any time he faces a challenge leaps to the forefront. Reki has barely started nibbling his end of the Pocky when Langa lunges in and steals the whole stick. Reki jerks back in startlement - he thought he was going to get headbutted - and sprawls backwards, catching himself with his hands on the grass. He's not sure if Langa's mouth actually brushed over his for just an instant, or if he imagined it.
Langa placidly munches his 90% of a Pocky stick, looking delighted. He won a game and his prize was a snack; Reki's pretty sure this is his new favourite game.
Miya laughs at them. "You have to eat it in bites, you can't just swallow the whole thing like that," he chastises Langa. "Although that's a great overpowered attack." He seems reluctantly impressed.
Langa frowns and swallows. "That wasn't in the rules."
"Well it is," says Miya sternly. "You're going to bite Reki's face if you do that again."
Langa pouts, but fishes another stick of Pocky out of the box and holds it up in Reki's direction.
"Want a rematch, since I cheated?"
Reki snorts and shoves himself back up to a sitting position. "Sure, you're going down!"
Langa grins at him, and they both lean back in and get in position.
Miya counts down, and this time Reki's competitive spirit is fired up. He chomps through his half of the Pocky and shoves forward to steal Langa's - and his mouth presses firmly against Langa's for a moment before he yanks himself back. Reki's left with the impression of soft yielding warmth, and the sensation lingers. All of his attention is suddenly focused on his mouth and the rapidly fading memory of how Langa's lips felt.
He's not sure that Langa noticed that they kissed, though - he's already reaching for the box of Pocky again.
"One more," Langa insists. Reki has a hard time turning down Langa, so he resignedly leans back in.
Miya counts down again, and they both spring into action.
Having had some practice, they're more evenly matched this time. They meet in the middle, crashing into each other mid-bite with lips parted. The inside of Langa's lower lip drags over Reki's mouth and the tip of his tongue, and the brief contact between shocking hot, wet, sensitive skin is electrifying.
They break apart and freeze, staring at each other.
Miya shoves himself to his feet and kicks his skateboard up into his hands. "I'm done being the referee, I'm going to skate more." He drops his board on the concrete, hops on, and pushes off towards the ramps.
Reki swallows and breaks their locked gaze. He rubs a hand over the back of his neck, hoping Langa doesn't notice that his cheeks are getting pink.
"So what'd you think?" Reki asks, glancing over. Langa is busy extracting another stick of Pocky from the box.
"Well," Langa says slowly, "it's not a very efficient way to eat Pocky. It's really just an excuse to kiss someone, right?" He shoots a look over at Reki as he bites into the Pocky. His face is pink too, but that might be sunburn.
Reki sputters. He did not expect Langa to figure that out so quickly. "What, no - it's - well, if you thought that why did you agree to play?"
Langa ducks his head and mumbles something that ends with "...kiss you" as he shoves the rest of the stick of Pocky into his mouth.
Reki's sure he can't have heard that correctly, but he can't think of anything else Langa could have said, and he just stares.
"Why did you agree to play?" Langa asks, focusing on pulling another Pocky out of the box and pointedly not looking over at Reki.
Reki fidgets with his headband, tugging it lower and then pushing it back up. "You were curious about it, and I like trying new stuff with you." He hesitates, because he wasn't planning on revealing anything more, but he always wants to be honest with Langa. "And I guess I was maybe curious about ... Um, about kissing you, too."
Langa goes still. His eyes are wide and his lips are parted just a little. The sunny afternoon sky is bright blue behind him, and the leaves of the tree above him cast dappled shadows over his face, but Reki tunes it all out to focus on Langa's expression. He doesn't look upset, or offended - his gaze is intent, focused entirely on Reki.
Langa sets down the box of Pocky and nudges it back towards the bag of snacks they brought. "Hey Reki," he says slowly, the way he does when he's not sure how to say something in Japanese and is thinking hard about which words to use. "Do you wanna try it without the Pocky?"
Reki blinks. But without the Pocky, the Pocky game would just be -
- He feels his face stretch into a broad grin. Langa wants to kiss more? Kiss for real?
"Yeah, sure," Reki says. "I don't have much of a sweet tooth, we can skip it." He's sure his excitement is obvious, but Langa doesn't seem to be scared off - his eyes are bright and eager.
Langa shuffles a little closer to him across the grass. "I might taste like chocolate though," as though that would discourage Reki. It's true, he's eaten half the box since they stopped playing.
"Oh yeah?" Reki feels his heart skip a beat at the thought of the kind of kissing where he can taste Langa - and then Langa puts his hands on Reki's knees and leans in to close the gap and they're kissing for real, without any half-chewed Pocky between them. Langa's breath is warm on his cheek, and his lips are soft as they purse and press against Reki's.
Reki's heart is pounding at being so close together, at kissing Langa and knowing Langa want to kiss him too. Their lips press and cling and break apart, over and over, and Reki thinks he's going to melt. Langa's tongue licks hotly over Reki's bottom lip, and Reki opens his mouth to try this too - when the tip of his tongue brushes Langa's it turns out he does taste like chocolate, but everything is too distractingly slick and soft for him to care.
Reki's not able to go another moment without touching Langa - his hands fly out, one curving around Langa's ribs, and one landing on the sun-warmed skin of Langa's neck. Langa's hair tickles the back of his hand. He feels warm, chest somehow full and vastly hollow and too big. Reki tries to put all that into the kiss, how excited he is to be kissing Langa, how happy he is that Langa wants to kiss him back. He sucks gently on Langa's bottom lip, strokes his tongue over Langa's and opens his mouth to let Langa return the gesture. Just like holding hands and squeezing, and the other person squeezing back, it makes something warm and tender unfold in Reki's chest.
Langa makes a soft noise against his mouth, and his hands slide up Reki's legs towards his waist as he presses himself closer. Suddenly Reki's mind is filled with thoughts of everything they could do if they weren't in public.
There's a rattle of wheels growing steadily louder, and then the scrape of board on pavement as the skater slides to a stop.
"No kissing in the skatepark!" comes Miya's voice, loudly disapproving. "Go on a date for that, I'm not going to sit around and watch you make out."
Reki feels Langa's chest shake with laughter under his hands. He breaks off their kiss to see Langa's smile, and can't help smiling back.
Reki's never heard of anyone ending up with a boyfriend after winning the Pocky game, but he's pretty sure it makes him the ultimate champion.