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If you would have told Reki two years ago that he would have the weirdest group of friends known to man and a boyfriend, he would have scoffed you off. Younger him would believe it to be impossible to even have one friend that could barely tolerate him. Much less a boyfriend.
Still, here he is now, cuddling with his bluenette boyfriend while watching skate videos on his phone. However, he can’t bring himself to really pay attention to anything the skaters were doing. His head was filled only with thoughts of final exams and acceptance letters.
“Reki?” Langa lightly nudges his shoulder. “You, okay?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah, just thinking.”
Langa frowns, pressing pause on the video they are watching. “If you really are okay, you would be smiling. But you aren’t.”
Ever since their fight back in tenth grade, they have both become a lot better at reading one another’s emotions, but it doesn’t change that sometimes it can be hard to get an answer. At the very least, however, they were patient and trusted that the other would open up eventually.
“Langa, have you given much thought to what you plan to do after we graduate?” That seemed to be a good place to start.
“Um, I don’t know, just doing the same as we do now. Working at Dope Sketch, skating with you, and going to Sia la Luce. Why do you ask?”
Reki bites his lip. “Don’t you want to go back to Canada?”
“Yeah, but that’s just a vacation for a week.” He shrugs.
“No no, I mean, don’t you want to go to school there? I’m not even thinking about the vacation.”
The plan there is as a celebration for graduating, Nanako and Langa are going to fly back to Canada for a week, with Reki coming along. It had taken time to convince his own mother to let him go, but Nanako had promised that he'd be safe. Langa has expressed openly how excited he is to teach his boyfriend how to snowboard. Just like how he had taught him to skate.
Langa sighs. “Reki, I only applied to one school there. And it was the one that my parents had gone to when they met. We don’t even know if I’m going to be accepted, so I’m not too worried about it.”
That’s just like Langa, as far as Reki is concerned. He will do things impulsively and not give much thought about it. He can’t help but envy him for it. All Reki is able to do is overthink everything and once his stress levels get to a certain point, he breaks down. Langa is lucky like that.
“What about you?” Reki jumps at the question.
“Um-um, I’m just applying to the same university as everybody else. Not particularly ambitious in that sense, I guess.”
This makes Langa frown for some reason. “Reki, you can build skateboards. How is that not ambitious?”
“It’s not like I can spend my whole life doing that, not forever anyway.” He forces himself to sit up, pushing the phone out of the way.
His boyfriend sits up next. Reki can feel his worried gaze on him. Curse Langa and him actually caring about his wellbeing! A hand finds its way to his shoulder, holding onto it firmly but not enough to hurt him. Langa would never do that intentionally.
“Whatever you choose to do with your future, I’ll support you,” He whispered into his ear. “I just want to be part of it.” Heat rises to Reki’s cheeks, and he can’t bring himself to look at his boyfriend’s face. Knowing Langa, it’ll be one of those sappy looks that makes Reki’s heart melt.
Langa kisses his hair, removing his hand from his shoulder and wraps his arms around his torso.
Reki gulps thickly, feeling as his small Adam’s apple bobs in the process. “O-of course you’ll be part of it. We promised each other infinity.” He hangs his head lower.
“We did. I just don’t want to imagine a life without you anymore.” Langa held him closer. While Reki is just getting more and more flustered.
“Langaaaaaa!” He whines.
“It’s true!”
“I’m aware, but you don’t need to be so straight forward about it!”
A couple days later at Dope Sketch, Reki is sweeping in the furthest corner of the store, thoughts pounding loud inside his head. Out the corner of his eye, he notices Langa reading something on his phone.
“Is everything alright?” He found himself asking.
“Yeah, just an email from one of our teachers, that’s all.”
“Why would they be emailing you after school hours?” Reki leans against the broom in his hand.
Langa shrugs, stuffing his phone into his back pocket. “It’s not a big deal.”
“You’d tell me if it were, right?” His boyfriend nods.
Reki sighs in relief. Even if Langa could be hard to read sometimes, he knew that he could trust him when it came to communicating his feelings. It does help too that they had laid down a rule of communication after they first put a label to their relationship a year ago. Sure, it might not seem necessary to make it a full-on rule, but it was for them.
Reki’s insecurities sometimes would get so bad to an explosive degree, so Langa always wanted to be the first one he talked to about them. Which Reki thought was really sweet, but also really embarrassing at the same time. In his head, the voice would constantly tell him he’s just being a burden to his boyfriend because of his insecurities. Most of the time, he would shove it to the back of his mind.
Other times… well, sometimes he believed it.
“You’re being quiet again.”
“I’m just thinking.” Langa tilts his head slightly.
“About?” Reki shrugs.
“How lucky I am to have someone like you.”
When Langa blushes, it’s very easy to see. Considering how pale he is, pink dusts his cheeks quite easily. However, it is one of Reki’s favorite things about his boyfriend. It is adorable. Which is why he smiles seeing the blush spread from his neck to the tip of his nose.
“I’m the lucky one, Reki.” Langa smiles fondly.
Then it was Reki’s turn to blush. Dang it, why can’t he have the upper hand just once! Why is Langa always blurting out these romantic things without thinking? Is he trying to kill him?!
“I see you two are being sappy again, not that it’s anything new,” Manager Oka comments.
“Of course, they are! If they weren’t, then it would be like they were replaced with some alien slime.” Miya carried in a couple of small boxes.
Oh right, Miya works at Dope Sketch now. He wanted some money for a new game a few months ago, and Oka managed to get him a position. Even though he was only fifteen, the owner liked the idea of a national team hopeful working to bring in more customers. This meant that he had more opportunities to make fun of the couple than usual.
“You already think we’re alien slimes!” Reki glares.
“And what’s your point?”
Reki opens his mouth to speak but then shuts it anyway. He did have him there, unfortunately. Miya smirks in satisfaction, chuckling under his breath. That little demon is evil!
“Reki,” Langa pokes at his arm gently. “Miya is just trying to get to you. But you know he doesn’t mean anything by it. Besides, I like it when we get sappy.” He grins. When did he even come over here?
He sighs. “Yeah, you’re right. He’s just being a brat.”
“Aw, I didn’t know you thought so highly of me,” Miya teases.
Reki growls at the small teen, and probably would have been ready to pounce had Langa not held him in place by the shoulders.
“Also, when are you supposed to take your entrance exams?”
“Huh?” The boys say at the same time.
Miya sighs. “Y’know, the university ones? What determines whether you can go to a school or not? Or is that brain cell that you both share not wanting to work properly?”
“I believe we’re supposed to take it in a few months,” Langa replies before Reki can get defensive about the brain cell comment.
“And have you been studying?”
“No,” They state bluntly.
Miya’s blank yet judgmental stare burned into their souls. It made Reki hide behind Langa in fear. He may only be a few years younger than them, but the kid is terrifying at any age. At least he has a protective boyfriend.
“You two are such morons, and I don’t know why I’m surprised anymore. These dictate your futures! Why aren’t you putting more effort into it?!”
He can practically see the angry cat tail shooting up behind his legs.
“Miya, these two are smart in their own ways. They are guaranteed to get in somewhere. They just happen to be morons that don’t care about anything more than skating and each other.” Oka chuckles.
Reki starts to pout, leaning against his boyfriend’s back. It didn’t matter how much he wanted to deny that Oka was right. He hates it when their manager is right.
Langa takes his hand and rubs his thumb along Reki’s knuckles softly. “We’ll do our best,” He says simply. It’s enough to bring a small smile back to Reki’s face, even if no one could see it. He loves just how easy it is to smile when he’s around Langa.
A couple hours later (after much arguing between Miya and him), they were finally let out for the day.
“Langa?”
“Yeah?” Reki gulps nervously.
“What job do you want as an adult? I mean, you could be a professional athlete if you really wanted to, like be on the national skating team like Miya. You’ve never actually mentioned before what you wanted to do in life.”
Langa stares at him blankly for a moment. They ride down the sidewalk side by side, with an awkward tension filling the air. At least, it’s there from Reki’s end. “I’ve never given it much thought myself. When I was a kid, I thought I’d enter the winter olympics as a snowboarder, but that isn’t what I’d want to do now.” His tone is wistful, and Reki can see in his face that he’s thinking of his dad again.
“Then, what would you want to do now?”
He shrugs. Just like the unhelpful yet adorable boyfriend he is. Great. “That doesn’t answer my question, your highness.”
“You are the only person that calls me that.” Langa frowns.
Reki snickers. “I know. The girls stopped calling you that when we owned our relationship.”
That had been an… interesting moment, to say the least. Obviously, they had told their skating friends about them not long after they got together, about two weeks if Reki remembered correctly. Their reactions were quite supportive, yet disappointed. Only because all four of them had bet on when they would tell them that they were officially dating (spoiler alert: Cherry had won, Joe was not happy). Same was said for their families, kind and supportive, even if Reki’s mom had been shocked that they weren’t already dating.
However, it was different when they came out about it at school. It had been during lunch and they were watching a skate video together, with Reki leaning on Langa’s shoulder. A girl had come up to them and held a pink envelope in her hand. This wasn’t anything new, of course, Langa used to get confessions all the time. Despite that, Reki refused to watch his new boyfriend get confessed to. It had been torture watching it before when they were just friends. Anyways, like the petty teenager he was, Reki had grabbed Langa’s face and pulled him into a kiss.
Langa’s whole body tensed up at first, not expecting him to do that there and then. But he kissed back, leaving the girl staring in confusion. Until she eventually walked away.
Word got out about it around school pretty quickly and the rest was history.
“They never called me that, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Reki brings himself to a halt. “We’re getting off-topic. You should compete as a professional skateboarder, like Miya. You’re really good and the national team would be very lucky to have you.”
Langa stops as well, staring at him mostly blankly, but Reki notices the way his eyebrows arched down a bit. “Reki, while I do like to compete, it’s just something I do with you, our friends, and at S. Besides, it would mean a lot of travelling.”
“So?”
“So, I don’t want to leave you behind like that.”
Heat creeps up his neck, and Reki feels goosebumps along his arms. “Langa-”
“I mean it. In Okinawa, everything I care about is here. You’re here, my mom’s here, and our friends are here.” As he spoke, Langa’s cheeks turned a light shade of pink, almost like he was when getting a sunburn. It was pretty adorable.
He reaches out for his hand and holds it softly. “Langa, that’s very sweet of you to say. And I love that you’re saying it, believe me. I just don’t want to be the reason that it holds you back from doing something you really love, and I’m sure the others would say the same thing. Whatever you choose to do with your life is still your choice, and if that’s what you want, then I’ll respect it.”
Langa smiles fondly, giving Reki’s hand a gentle squeeze. “Okay, I’ll think about that.”
If only Reki could take his own advice.
As the entrance exams grew closer, Reki and Langa found themselves studying more than either of them wanted to. They weren’t given much of a choice either, all the adults in their lives were making them in some way. Their mothers, Cherry, Oka, even Shadow made them sit down and study even when they were hanging out at the flower shop.
It didn’t stop Reki from trying to find his own entertainment, however.
Today, Reki and Langa had been left at Sia la Luce by Shadow and Cherry, leaving them with Joe to keep an eye on them. Langa is reading through one of his textbooks, leaning on his hand while looking bored, but is still focused. Meanwhile, Joe is busy in the kitchen working on a potential dish.
Which left Reki, with no one keeping a watchful eye on him. He’s supposed to be reading through his notes before taking a practice exam later, but knowing him, that isn’t going to happen.
He glances at his boyfriend from the corner of his eye, taking note of the way his arctic blue hair glows from the overhanging light. It was really pretty. How does Langa make anything look so effortlessly handsome? Reki sighs lovingly, which thankfully Langa doesn’t hear.
Why is he supposed to study? It’s not like he’s going to get into anywhere, or at least anywhere overly ambitious. All of this is just so… overwhelming.
Reki picks up his pencil and flips to a blank page in his notebook. Screw studying, he’s going to sketch his boyfriend while he isn’t looking. He starts out with the silhouette but makes sure to not scratch against the paper. The last thing he wants is to interrupt Langa’s concentration (or get himself in trouble, but mostly the first one). Once it looks the way he wants it, he starts sketching more of an outline for the face, which helps to keep track of the proportions he wants for the face.
As he works, an English song that Langa listens to pops into his head. Now, here’s the thing when it comes to Langa’s music, Reki cannot understand a single word of the lyrics. Which does make him feel bad sometimes when he listens to the playlist that Langa made for him for their one-year anniversary. However, he does usually like the instrumentals, especially in the slower songs. So, he starts to hum one from memory.
“Why are you humming A Thousand Years?” Langa asks, making Reki freeze automatically.
He’s been caught!
“Uhhh, it got stuck in my head?” It technically wasn’t a lie, but his uneasy tone made it sound that way.
Langa’s eyebrow uplifted. Yeah, he is not convinced. “You only hum when you’re distracted. Are you not studying your notes?”
“No…”
“Then what are you doing?”
Reki picks up his notebook and holds it tightly against his chest. “None of your business.” Even though it’s a sketch of the boy in question.
There is a flash of hurt that comes over Langa’s face, and seeing it makes Reki’s heart sink. Is he actually upset with him? But which part? About him not showing Langa what he’s working on or how he isn’t studying?
“I’m not going to lecture you, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m not Cherry.” Langa looks away sadly.
“No, no, Langa, I know that” Reki puts the notebook back down and cups Langa’s cheek, turning his gaze back onto him. “I-I just… I didn’t want to study so I was working on something else. Something embarrassing.” He blushes.
“How is it embarrassing?”
He bites his lip. “Promise you won’t judge me?”
Langa reaches up with his left hand and brushes some stray hairs away from Reki’s face, gazing into his amber eyes. “I would never judge you. Not seriously anyways.” Reki snickers at his boyfriend’s bad joke. “Besides, if you made it, it’s bound to be great.”
Of course, that’s his reaction. This is Langa, the ruler of making him flustered.
He takes a deep breath, removing his hand from his cheek, which makes Langa whine like a puppy, and flips his notebook over. Before he could try pushing it towards him, his boyfriend ends up surprising him by picking it up to get a better look at the sketch.
It’s not his best work, even for a sketch. Langa’s eyes were uneven and unproportionate, while his hair part was in the wrong spot. Not to mention but his nose was all crooked, which is a crime to Reki, both as an artist and as Langa’s boyfriend. It was terrible.
“Can I keep this?”
Wait, what? Did he hear that correctly?
Reki blinks once, then twice. “Did you actually ask to keep it?”
“Yeah, I really like it.” Langa’s periwinkle-colored eyes sparkle happily, and he is grinning ear to ear. While he’s happy to see this look on him, Reki is left baffled. Why is his boyfriend this in love with such a crappy sketch?
“W-why?” That is all he’s able to muster out.
That sparkle in his eyes quickly diminishes as Langa tilts his head all the while giving him that “seriously, dude” judgmental look. Which is one that Reki is all too familiar with, considering just how often he receives it from Langa. It sucks.
Reki chuckles nervously. “You can have it if you really want it, but it really isn’t anything special. Just a bad sketch.”
“I disagree. Sketch or not, you drew me to look so handsome.”
“But you are handsome, I thought you knew that.”
The bluenette shrugs half-heartedly. “Not really, but I can’t see myself through your eyes. Just like how you can’t see yourself through mine.”
Though he didn’t want to admit it, Langa kind of has a point, even if he didn’t even know where this conversation is going anymore. The way that they see each other is different to how they see themselves. Sometimes he wishes that Langa could see just how awesome and amazing he is through Reki’s perspective. Just how kind and fearless he is, or how sweet and gentle he is.
How can Langa not see all the things he sees?
“Well, if this is a nice reminder of how handsome my boyfriend truly is,” Reki took note of the faint blush that came up to those pale cheeks. “then you should have it. Keep it for the rest of your life if you really want to.” He leans forward and presses his lips to the tip of Langa’s nose.
A familiar, low chuckle happens to ruin their weird moment, and it makes the teenagers freeze. “You both are lucky that I am not Karou, or you two would get a good long lecture about the importance of studying.”
“Joe, please don’t tell-” The chef cuts Reki off.
“I’m not finished,” Reki shut up immediately. “I also know how easily distracted you two are when you’re together, so I was expecting this anyways. Don’t worry, I won’t tell him, but it’s probably best you split up for now. Your future is still important.”
He hates it when the dad is right.
A couple of weeks later, Reki and Langa were “studying” together at the library. Well, Langa actually was. Reki’s mind was elsewhere, trying to decide on which trick to try after they were done with this. Skating is better than studying by a landslide.
“How much longer until we’re able to leave?” Reki whined.
Langa didn’t bother looking up from his book when he replied. “It’s only been ten minutes since you last asked, so it is still only an hour left until we need to be home.”
“It’s taking forever!” He whined, drawing out the r dramatically.
“You’re the one that isn’t actually trying to make your time productive.” Since when is Langa so sassy?
Reki gave him a glare before laying his head down on his notebook. He has tried to study, he really has, like three times. It’s just… no matter what he did, his brain was thinking about anything else but whatever he’s studying. He knew he should tell Langa about it, but there’s no way to do it without making him sound lazy.
Langa finally looked at him. “Is everything okay?”
“No,” Reki honestly admitted. Just because he didn’t know how to tell Langa the truth, doesn’t mean he should hide how he’s feeling. Langa doesn’t deserve Reki lying to him.
“Does it have to do with studying?” Reki nodded.
Langa stuck one of Reki’s yellow skate-themed sticky notes above the sentence he was on before closing the book. This action quickly brought a flustered blush to his cheeks. He was going to have his boyfriend’s full attention. Uh oh.
“Reki, you hate studying.” The boy in question raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, I know, and?” Langa rolled his eyes at the snarky comment.
“Why exactly do you hate studying so much?” Reki bit his lip. “I mean, you struggle just with paying attention in class, and you will find any reason to get out of doing your schoolwork. I don’t mean to intrude, but it seems like there is something deeper there.”
Geez, just how much about him did Langa actually notice when Reki wasn’t paying attention?
“That’s the thing, dude, I don’t know why I hate it so much, or why I struggle to do it so much. My body only ever wants to do one thing at a time, yet my brain is thinking about doing like a million things at once. What’s wrong with me!” He practically yelled that last part, being met with a bunch of “Shhs!” from people around them.
Great, just great.
Langa gently rubbed some circles against his back. “There’s nothing wrong with you, there never has been.”
“Aren’t you a bit biased?” His eyebrow raised dramatically.
“Yes,” Langa said bluntly. “and it’s the truth. You are the kindest and most alive person I know. You are able to analyze things about skating that no one else can, and you can make almost anyone smile. Which I lo-like about you.” He wasn’t able to hear what Langa was about to say before he corrected himself. What was he going to say?
The backrubs continued and so did Langa’s compliments, much to Reki’s flustered dismay. (Though he secretly is not complaining, but don’t tell Langa!)
Eventually, that last hour came to an end and Reki was finally able to escape from the dull colors of the library. “FREEDOM!” He shouts just outside the door.
“You’re being dramatic.” Langa looked up at him from the bottom of the steps. How did he get down there so fast?
“No, I’m not!”
Before he was supposed to S the next night, Reki tried studying by himself. He has his earbuds plugged into his ears, music blasting loudly into his brain, and his pencil bounces a little in his hand as he reads through a chapter in his textbook. He’s relaxed and should be able to focus now, right?
Unfortunately, no. He focuses more on lip syncing along to the songs than actually taking the time to understand the information. He couldn’t help it; his playlist just has the best songs that have the best lyrics.
So, the only thing that actually sticks in his brain were incomplete sentences from paragraphs he skimmed.
Reki can just hear Cherry’s disappointment in the back of his mind, and he’s not even with him yet. He sighs, closing up his textbook. He’s such a failure.
At that moment, almost as if he was able to read his mind, a text from Langa lit up his screen. Begrudgingly grabbing it from the farest corner of his desk, he unlocks his phone to read it.
Snowflake
Hey, I’m waiting outside your window.
Why is your light on?
Reki gulps. Of course, that’s what he asks, since Reki usually keeps his light off so it doesn’t raise suspicion from his mom or Koyomi as to why he’s up at such a late hour.
It’s nothing.
I’m coming down.
Reki turns off his lamp, stuffs his phone in his back pocket and grabs his bag. He peeks his head out his window and sure enough, his boyfriend is on the moped, waiting for him. He couldn’t help but smile fondly as he climbed out and slid down the ramp outside his window.
“Hey snowflake,” Reki greets warmly, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
Langa smiles back and the warmth of it is enough to set his heart ablaze. “Hey. You ready?”
“Always.” Reki sits behind him and clips on the helmet. Sometimes he would try to insist that he didn’t need a helmet when they were driving to S, but Langa would retort with “Your safety is more important”, which always alerts the butterflies in Reki’s stomach. Langa has always been very adamant about his safety.
He wraps his arms around Langa’s abdomen and snuggles into his back. Despite that his boyfriend is naturally colder than he is, Reki loves to snuggle when they’re on the moped together. And he knows Langa does too.
Langa starts up the engine and drives away from his house.
The streets are quiet at this time of night, aside from the occasional truck or car, so it’s usually the nicest time to be out. Plus, the temperature is at its coolest in the typically hot Okinawa. It’s one of Reki’s favorite times of the whole week.
“You’re pretty quiet back there,” Langa comments.
“Just relaxin’.”
They don’t say much aside from that. At least, Reki doesn’t. If Langa says something, he’ll say it quietly, which is hard to hear over the motor.
Eventually, they arrive at S, but don’t park the moped until they get to their friends, who happen to be watching some skaters against the wall.
“The kids finally decide to show up,” Joe declares.
Cherry rolls his eyes. “They were probably studying, you woozy gorilla!” And they were off.
Reki is the one to get off first, letting his helmet rest around his neck, his wild hair free once more. “Where’s Miya?”
“He’s showing off some tricks over there.” Shadow points at a small group of people that were gathered by the halfpipe. Miya must have had a competition recently, so he has more attention than usual.
“I’m going to practice over there for a bit, are you good here by yourself?” Langa asks him, his board tucked under his arm.
Reki nods. “Yeah, just be careful. I needed to talk to Cherry anyway.” Satisfied with his answer, Langa gives him a smile and skates over to the halfpipe.
Beside him, Cherry and Joe were still arguing over something dumb, whatever that might be. While Shadow looks completely disinterested, not that he blamed him. He had two choices: 1. Wait until the arguing was over, which could take forever. Or 2. Dare to interrupt their little shtick and risk his life.
The first option is probably safer, but when has Reki ever been known to actually follow the safe option?
“Cherry,” He tries once.
“Cherry,” He tries again, but a little louder. Reki really doesn’t want to try a third time. So, he turns to the next best thing. “Little help?” He turns to Shadow, who smirks.
The way that he watches Shadow take in the deepest breath of air is enough to tell Reki to brace himself. He covers his ears and takes a couple steps away. He already regrets asking him.
“CHERRY!” Shadow shouts loudly, which does get the adults to shut up, but it also gets the attention of the people around them. It even made Langa stop dead in his tracks mid-air and bailed hard. Oops.
At least it did the job and finally got Cherry’s attention. “What?” The glare he sends the two of them is enough to make Reki hide behind Shadow in fear. (He’s not Langa but he’s the closest thing he has to a wall.)
“I actually had a question for you, please don’t kill me.” Reki gulps.
“Proceed.”
“Could you help me study? Every time I try to do it on my own… I can’t focus or remember the information I read. And you’re the smartest person I know.”
Despite Shadow’s reputation as the “anti-hero of S”, he’s still gentle when he brings Reki in front of him. He hesitantly meets Cherry’s awaiting gaze, and he is surprised by what he sees. Cherry is looking at him with a genuine smile. Which wasn’t something he was used to seeing. “You want my help?”
Reki nods slowly. “Yeah. I’m doomed to fail unless I get my butt in gear.”
“Well, I used to help this oaf here when we were in school,” Joe tried to retort but Cherry stomps on his foot before he could. “So, I’d be honored to help you.” Though it was a bit weird to see Cherry with such a genuine smile, Reki couldn’t help but smile in return. He just needs to make sure to apologize to Langa for Shadow yelling. Maybe some cuddles should do it.
“Thank you… I just don’t want to let everyone down.”
Before he knew it, he was pulled into a group hug by Joe, Cherry, and a reluctant Shadow. A hug from just the adults, and where two of them are very closed off? Where did this come from?
“You just need to do your damndest, we’ll all be proud of you for giving your all.” Joe chuckles, a sparkle in his eyes.
“But is it possible that you’re more afraid to let yourself down?” Cherry asks.
Reki hung his head a bit. “I dunno… I guess? If I’m being honest, I don’t care about what school I go to, or if I’m even going to one. But it feels like since everyone else is trying so hard, it feels I should be trying to. Does that make sense?”
Much to his surprise, the adults all nod, even Cherry.
Joe looks right at Reki, a serious expression overtaking his face, but the sparkle is still in his eyes. “The future can be scary, but it’s important to not look at it that way. It should be a time to look back and think ‘Man, I got through all that. And now I’m going further down my path, I look forward to it.’ However, the choice of what you do on that path is all up to you, and when you decide, we’re all right here for you. Especially Langa.”
Heat rose to Reki’s cheeks and his jaw dropped. He didn’t even know what exactly to say to that. What could he possibly say to that?
The thing about Reki is his father is in his life, but he isn’t around a lot. He works away from home a lot for business trips so Reki is only able to hear so much advice from him or lessons on being a man. But somehow, Joe managed to take that role.
His eyes began to water, and he hugged Joe tighter.
“Reki! Are you okay?” Langa rushed over, worry clear in his voice. “Why is he crying? Did someone say something? Wh-why are you looking at me that way?” Reki had looked in Langa’s direction with an incredibly fond smile, his tears dripping onto Joe’s arms.
He felt at home. And he was so, so lucky.